Hidden Flags - Another God?
by Senescence
Summary: Katsuragi Keima... handsome, athletic, charming - wait what? A major capture operation is underway and Keima is forced to work with another runaway spirit team. HIATUS.
1. Soccer

"Uoooohhh! Kami-nii-sama! Listen to this!" Elsie exclaims. The hagoromo, trailing around her neck and ending in a rectangular screen, forms the devils' equivalent of an electronic tablet, except powered by soul energy, of course. While Keima played on his PFP in the living room, Elsie was reading her s-mails in the seat next to him. She scrolls down the luminous Hellian. "There are rumors that one of the Runaway Spirit Squad pairs have captured _twelve _kaketama! But only two are counted in their official records. It says here that they drove out spirits from girls who belonged to other districts, so they couldn't capture the spirits for themselves."

"DAMMIT!" is her buddy's abrupt response, which was not entirely unexpected since he did this quite often. Nevertheless, Elsie jumped, startled, each time. "What's with this new kind of gameplay-" Keima demands of the PFP in his hands,"-making the player compete with an AI?! Not only does a male AI tarnish the spirit of galgames, it just serves as a nuisance!"

As the Capturing God furiously taps his buttons and grumbles, his partner tries again more earnestly. "Onii-sama, please listen! Someone is about to beat your record!"

"Like I care about other runaway spirit teams. In fact, I'm glad there's at least one other competent member out there, though the dent it makes to a total of 60,000 isn't much. Look at this!" he snaps, "He isn't even going about his confession right! Don't confuse Emi-chan just because you've got cheap childhood friend parameters!"

"Mou, Onii-sama," Elsie sighs, slumping into the couch. She was very proud of Keima. He was the best buddy any devil could ask for. She cared for him so much that she couldn't help feeling uncomfortable when his reputation might be threatened. "Shouldn't you be a bit more worried? You take so much pride in your games, but when it comes to accomplishments in the real world, you don't care one bit!"

Keima pushes up his glasses. His voice comes out low and foreboding. "Accomplishments in the real world? Let me tell you something good, Elsie."

In a metaphorical world, Keima's lectures boasted great imagery. This time, we see Keima standing valiantly within an impressive structure made of CD game covers.

A MAN'S PRIDE IS HIS CASTLE!

-Katsuragi Keima

"You see people slaving away at things considered worthwhile in the real world.

'I'm going to study hard in school!'

'I'm going to go to a good college!'

'I'm going to become a wonderful adult!'

But in the end, is it something that they really want to do, or is it something society brainwashes them into doing? Most humans are petty this way! They lie to themselves in order to meet the expectations of others!"

With his face an inch from hers, he demands of the quailing devil, "_WHO_ ARE YOU, ELSIE?! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO _DO_?! IF YOU DIED RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT, WOULD YOU LOOK BACK AT YOUR LIFE AND FEEL SATISFIED?!"

He stands and gestures expansively, "These are the questions one must ask oneself! Will I be true to myself? Or will the road to 'success' be paved with regrets?"

Keima ends the lecture by sitting in the corner of the couch, as though isolated. "As long as I have my games and live in my ideal, I'll be perfectly happy."

"But Onii-samaaaa," Elsie whines, not really understanding much of what he had just said, "don't you want to know how that team was able to capture that many girls?"

The Capturing God shrugs his divine shoulders. "Maybe they're using 'love' too. That's the fastest way, right?"

"But the buddy is a girl!"

The Capturing God stops. He has a moment of divine thought. Then, returning to his game, he answers, "Well, then. Perhaps equality of sexual preference isn't as far away as we think."

X

Maijima Academy.

The class of 2-B has just begun lunch.

"Who wants to watch the soccer match tomorrow with meeee?" Chihiro asks brightly. "The Maijima Boars versus the Fujioka Tornadoes should be a match to remember, especially with Hayato-senpai leading our team!" she ends with a dreamy sigh.

Miyako smiles wanly. "So that explains the sudden interest in our sports."

Ayumi laughs. "Chihiro, I thought you gave up confessing to guys!"

Chihiro pouts. "How rude! I wasn't confessing _all_ the time! Besides, is it wrong to want to watch a hot guy look cool?"

"I wish you felt as enthusiastic about the track team!" Ayumi teases.

Chihiro answers, in mock seriousness, "I'm sorry, Ayumi, but I'm not interested in girls."

Everyone laughs.

X

Tomorrow.

It is a beautiful early evening. Twilight. The kind with lots of blues and pinks and sun-kissed yellows.

It is the perfect twilight for a soccer match. Floodlights snap on. Chatter fills the bleachers.

Chihiro explains the rules of soccer to Elsie, who is getting confused by which goals a goalie is supposed to protect.

Hayato-senpai's fanclub unfurls their heart-riddled banners as the Maijima Girl's Soccer team whip out placards on which encouraging phrases are written in simple English ("Fight-o!" "Go Maijima!" and "Win!").

Chihiro, Elsie, Ayumi, and Miyako find seats in the center. They all have hotdog omelets and drinks.

The announcer welcomes the audience. The teams line up on the field. A whistle, a kickoff, and the game begins.

In about 40 minutes, the Fujioka Tornadoes takes the lead by four points.

At half-time, Elsie gets up. "I'm going to the toilet! Does anyone want snacks from the canteen?"

"Ah, I want more soda!" Chihiro calls, handing her some money.

"Me too! Some bocky would be nice." Ayumi adds to the money pile. "Thanks Ellie!"

Elsie squeezes through the crowd, squeaking a constant string of little apologies until she reaches the bathroom.

She had already washed her hands and left when-

_DORO DORO DORO DORO DORO!_

"Eh?" Elsie blinks in surprise. A girl in a Fujioka Tornadoes jersey, hearing the alarm, looks over her shoulder at Elsie.

Time seems to slow. She seems separate from the rest of the world, despite the crowd. Elsie memorizes her face in an instant. And then she is gone.

Elsie turns off the Spirit Sensor, pushes through the crowd, finds the jersey and follows it all the way to the opposite bleachers.

Back at Maijima's side, the three girls check the time on the big screen. "I wonder where Ellie's gone. The game's about to start."

X

"If she's from Fujioka, then she's not part of our jurisdiction," Keima says flatly. He and Elsie are under the bleachers, the Fujioka Girl's Soccer Team above them. The male AI had put him in a bad mood. It wasn't that he disliked the idea of an AI that competed with his capturing, he just wished the developers had given more thought to their function. Their simplicity didn't make for compelling, complex gameplay, it just made dealing with them tediously time-consuming, and he still had seventeen unopened games to go through that week. "Check your records," he orders as he makes a virtual girl blush with the press of the II button.

Elsie pulls up her hagoromo computer screen. "Let's see... Yukinoshita Youko, Yukinoshita Youko... Ah! You're right! She's already been tagged by... Kami-nii-sama," she waves her arms in alarm, "it's Maggie's team! The one I was telling you about!

"Then that's fixed." Keima sighs. "Geez, you brought me all the way out here for nothing. Take me home, now!" he commands.

The sound of cheering fills the stadium. "Aaand the Maijima Boars wins by two - by only two - points! What a close game!" shouts the announcer.

"Ehhh, it's over?" Elsie says despairingly.

"How pointless," Keima sighs, walking away.

"Aww, that was so close!" came a voice from the team above them.

"Good game though." They were coming down the bleachers.

"Yeah, our boy's team did really well, although that number 8 on Maijima's side was a killer!"

"Good-looking too." They were right in front of Keima.

"Tomorrow, it'll be our turn!"

"With Youko as our ace, we'll definitely beat them! Right, Youko?"

Keima had looked up just in time to see the girl called Youko wear an expression of disappointment and seriousness. It lasts the briefest of moments. Then she smiles.

"No," she says brightly, "we'll beat them together! We all worked hard for this. Let's get a good rest tonight and be prepared for tomorrow!"

The group has one of those cheesy "we can do it!" scenes, then they run ahead of him.

As Elsie and Keima are walking toward the stadium exit, Elsie makes a gloomy observation. "It's hard to tell if someone has a runaway spirit without the spirit sensor... She seemed very positive to me."

"It's the ones who are so positive that are worse off," God states. "Listen up, Elsie.

Positivism is a hardened mask to hide inner weakness.

- Katsuragi Keima

The problem with that is nobody notices you've been suffering until it's too late. The team's also relying on her, so all the more she can't afford to show stress."

Elsie is once again struck by awe. "Onii-sama is amazing! You were able to analyze her so quickly!" She adds disappointedly, "If only Youko-san was our target instead, we could start driving the spirit out right now. Eeek!"

Keima has faced her with a dangerous expression. "Oi, oi, don't just pick up more responsibility for me to do just 'cause it's right in front of us. If we take up more slack in the system, the higher-ups will dump more work on us both. This is a valuable lesson in collaboration. If they see you doing all the work, they'll think, 'Oh, what a reliable guy! Can you do this too, please? You'll probably do a better job on it anyway!'"

"But Onii-sama, I thought you wanted to complete the contract quickly!" she reasons, catching up to him.

"At the rate we're going, capturing 60,000 spirits in one lifetime is impossible. I have no intention of spending the rest of my life as a Runaway Spirit search dog... there must be a more efficient way."

There is a crowd in front of them. "Youko-san is gonna kick your butts tomorrow!"

The crowd is made of two parties of girls facing each other, both in jerseys. It appears that the Fujioka Girl's Soccer Team and the Maijima Girl's Soccer Team are having a trash talk session.

The girl called Youko, standing at the center of her team, looks uncomfortable.

"Shouldn't you do something, Kami-sama?" Elsie whispers. "Youko-san doesn't look so good. The gap in her heart might get bigger!"

Nobody notices a soccer ball spinning dangerously on a finger.

"Trash talking before a game is traditional," God says, carefully avoiding eye contact with either group and trying to make himself small. "There's no way I'm getting involved."

"Ah, Ellie!" Chihiro, with the rest of the 2-B girls, arrive at the scene. "You disappeared all of a sudd- gack!" She reels in shock. "Otamega! What are you doing here?!"

"Oh yeah? Seems like today's game just foreshadows another beating tomorrow!"

The spinning ball drops to the floor.

"Hmph, don't underestimate the girl's team!"

"Not getting involved... not getting involved... ah my games..."

The spinning ball flies.

It was never meant to hit anyone outside the power show. It was purely a scare tactic, all in good fun. It wasn't even kicked that hard.

The trouble was, instead of being caught, the Maijima girls dodged out of its way, and the ball hit Keima squarely in the back.

The PFP sails out of his hands, hits the ground several feet away, its velocity making it bounce twice, skid, and eventually grind to a painful halt.

The shattered screen blinks off with a pathetic "bzzt."

Keima stares.

And just as he makes a wobbly step in its direction, the PFP is stampeded by a passing crowd.

"YOU STUPID SOCCER-PLAYING GIRLS! WHAT'S WITH THIS VIOLENCE?!" he yells, cradling the broken PFP in his arms. "SOMETHING'S REALLY WRONG WITH THE REAL! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!"

The girl from the Fujioka team who had kicked the ball is also frozen in shock. Youko, seeing that she is frightened, steps up.

"Gomen nasai!" she says, bowing desperately. "We didn't mean to hit you! We'll pay for it, right girls?"

She reaches out, Keima turns away protectively. "NO! I absolutely refuse! No one is to touch my PFP!"

"Then please take my phone number," she says, handing him a piece of paper, "We'll send you the money-"

"NO! I'm tired of the real getting in the way of everything! That money is probably cursed with bad luck!" His next words resounded in everyone's hearts as though spoken indeed by God. "_You should all just_...

..._DISAPPEAR!"_

The world stopped turning for a moment. All is still.

Then Chihiro and Ayumi beat up Keima with the furious cry, "Why don't _you_ just disappear, you rude bastard!"

With Keima's gurgles punctuating the background, Miyako gives the Fujioka girls an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry. Please don't take his behavior personally. That's just the way Katsuragi is."

Youko tries a smile. "W-well, then, please give him my contact info."

As the Fujioka Soccer Team leaves, Elsie notices miasma surrounding Youko. It hadn't been there before.

"Youko-san, are you all right?" asks one of her teammates.

"Mm, I'm fine. My head just started hurting a little."

"I understand. That creepy man can make anyone feel bad."

As soon as Chihiro and Ayumi have left Keima a steaming pulp, Elsie starts to beat Keima up too. "Kami-nii-sama no baka! You made the gap in her heart bigger!"

* * *

**Read and review please! It gives me strength!**


	2. A Different Challenge

**Whoever guesses where all the names come from gets an e-cookie.**

* * *

The Katsuragi siblings stand outside a gate. The gate's plaque reads "Fujioka Public School."

Keima is playing on a spare PFP. His silence is heavier than usual.

"It's all because of Kami-sama and his big mouth!" Elsie whines. "Youko-san was so upset, she didn't even come to the game yesterday! Not only that, their team lost!"

Keima, looking uncomfortable, tries to concentrate on his game. "...To think she was insecure enough to get hurt by what I said... And now her team's lost the match when everyone was relying on their ace... That runaway spirit must be having a grand time."

"Eto... it's Elysia-san, isn't it?"

The voice makes them turn. Its owner is a small, meek-looking devil wearing a knitted beret.

Elsie recognizes her immediately. "Maggie-chan!"

X

Margaret El Du Holiette, Second Degree Devil. Elsie remembered Maggie in her Cultural Studies of the Human World and Gear Training classes. Besides picking up on how to use the hagoromo faster than the other devils, there was nothing particularly remarkable about the mild-mannered Maggie.

As the trio make their way through the school, Elsie goes on the subject she had been meaning to go on since the s-mail. Devils can be just as gossipy as humans, after all.

"Ano ne, Maggie-chan," Elsie begins, sheepishly poking her index fingers together, "you know, there've been rumors going on about your team. N-not bad rumors, though!" she clarifies quickly. "Have you heard?"

"Yes... I've heard."

"Th-then are they true?!" Elsie asks, all concern turning into admiring surprise. "Did you really drive out twelve runaway spirits?!"

Maggie replies meekly. "Mmm... kind of... it's the result of bad luck that Merui-chan doesn't get recognized." Elsie remembers one other thing about Maggie: she never said anything with malice. "Since this is a large city with more commercial areas than residential ones, most of the hosts we've found turned out not to live here. They'd already been tagged by other teams. Merui-chan and I merely help out."

"Merely help out? But the rumors were saying it was _you_ who drove the spirits out, not the teams that actually captured them!" Elsie presses on.

Maggie's eyes glisten in awe. "Merui-chan does most of the work. She's quite amazing! Ah," she says suddenly, smiling, "but Elsie-san's team has captured many more runaway spirits! You even won the Skull Honor Award!"

Elsie scratches her head with embarrassed pride. "Eheheh! Well, actually, Kami-nii-sama does all the work," she says, indicating the tall boy beside her. "He's quite amazing too!"

_DORO DORO DORO DORO DORO!_

"Eh?!" Elsie touches her Sensor in puzzlement. "Another spirit?!" She had already disabled the alarm for Youko, so this alarm should be sensing a different kaketama.

The trio stands in a corridor on the second floor. On one side of the corridor are the classrooms; the other side is a large window overlooking the school courtyard.

Elsie looks out the window.

The girl who set off the alarm is, like Youko, short-haired. She is laughing with a group of other girls whose daring dress indicated they were of the bad girl hoodlum persuasion.

"That's another kaketama host in our jurisdiction," Maggie explains. "Sagami Rei."

Elsie steps back in shock. "Y-you have _two_ runaway spirits to keep track of?!" She and Keima had never encountered two at once.

It is important to note that the trio had already reached their intended destination when Elsie's Spirit Sensor went off.

A classroom door opens behind Keima.

"Maggie, I want you to make-" a voice begins, stopping abruptly as its owner beholds the bespectacled boy in the way.

To everyone else in the world, the following second could probably not be remarked upon as having any great significance. To the two humans currently standing before each other, however, that one second is an entirely different matter. Neither devil, nor indeed, any other human, could have fathomed the instantaneous comprehension that passed like lightning between the Capturing God, and the girl called Merui-chan.

For the sake of our readers, here is the gist.

Keima saw the eyes first, or more accurately, the shine of the glasses that obscured said eyes. There was unkempt hair, a school sweater one size too big, the most recent issue of _Shoujo Beat_ with handwritten tabs, and finally, in the classroom itself, piles of manga and magazines.

Oh. And the devil's choker.

The girl called Merui had made a similar deduction about Keima.

She slams the door shut.

"We haven't found any new runaway spirits in our territory," the voice beyond the door states. "If you've lost your target, please go and find her yourself. Please put some backbone into doing your own work for a change instead of playing video games. You buddies always ask for help without thinking things through for yourselves first."

Keima tries to contain his anger with each successively haughty sentence. The ingrate! Here he was, feeling guilty enough about aggravating Yukinoshita Youko's kaketama that he would offer his strength-

But no! Calm down! She is only one of the real! Do not let the real affect you! They are not important. What's important is to be able to get back to the games without the heavy cloud of fault hanging over his head.

"Merui-chan! They're not here to ask for help!" Maggie calls out. "They just want to know how Youko is doing!"

The door slides open in a fury.

"SO IT WAS _YOUR_ FAULT, WAS IT?!" Keima suddenly finds himself locked in a double-noogie hold. Her face, a vision of angry, terrifying retribution, looms over him. "_YOU _WERE THE BASTARD WHO MADE THE KAKETAMA IN YOUKO'S HEART STRONGER! What did you do? What did you say? You didn't molest her, did you? You creepy, socially-awkward fanboy!"

Keima struggles our of her hold. "AS IF I'D DO SUCH A THING! Don't touch me you creepy, socially-awkward fangirl!"

X

A broken PFP lies on the classroom table. The two Runaway Spirit teams sit on either side.

Merui is deep in thought. "I see. Unfortunately, 'you should all just disappear' is probably the most _IN_SENSITIVE thing you could have _POSS_IBLY told her."

Keima is also serious. "I understand. That is why I wish to offer you my aid."

He had been careless, he admitted. He already knew Yukinoshita Youko was a host. He already knew he should've used a different stadium exit. He shouldn't have gotten involved but, as with everything else, he somehow ended up doing precisely that.

It was the price to pay for carelessness - you wind up owing someone something, whether that someone was Youko or this Merui character or something as general as a kaketama host, it didn't matter who.

God didn't like feeling indebted.

"I will help you capture Yukinoshita Youko!" Keima declares. "That way, you won't have so many targets on your plate." He adds as an afterthought, "Ah, I work by myself, so it would be great if you didn't get in the way of the capture."

Merui considers him for a moment. She shuts her eyes and crosses her arms. "If these are your terms...

Then I refuse!

Working alone at this point isn't going to get anything done in time. If you really want to help, then follow me." She stands. Her voice is low and serious. "There's something we need to show you."

The school bell suddenly rings its pleasant tune, indicating the end of lunch.

"Er... actually," she says, a little embarrassed, "do you think you can come back after school?"

X

Fujioka Public School, Outer Courtyard.

"You sure you can't come shopping with us today, Sagami?" The asker is wearing thick makeup and flashy piercings. Being surrounded by two other girls in similar get-ups gave the group the overall impression of a three-headed, predatory bird.

Sagami Rei slaps her hands together in apology. "Gomen! There's someone I gotta see today."

"Okaay then," the bird says airily. "But you gotta come with us tomorrow, Sagami, or we'll think you're not really up for it!"

"I'll come, I'll come!" she assures the bird, a hint of nervousness in her tone.

She waves goodbye.

Little does Sagami Rei realize that, as soon as she left the gates, four invisible people had begun following her.

Sagami Rei stops at a tall building called Whiteflower Apartments. Beside the front doors is an intercom box. She sighs, then presses the button beside the name "Yukinoshita."

In surprise, Keima whispers, "She and Youko are friends?"

"That's right," Merui replies quietly. "Maggie, from this point on, please make the hagoromo soundproof. We follow her up..."

They cram into the elevator with Sagami.

"Shouldn't we have taken the stairs?" Keima says irritably. He hated this kind of proximity. Also, it would be trouble if more people came in.

"Doesn't matter," Merui snaps, looking uncomfortable. "We're here, anyway."

The elevator opens to the third floor. Sagami knocks on room 310 and, just as it opens-

_DORO DORO DORO DORO DORO!_

Elsie lets out another terribly confused, "Eh?" She had already disabled the sensor for Youko-san and Rei-san, so who else could possibly-?

"Rei-chan! I'm so glad you came," says the middle-aged woman who has opened the door. Her short curly hair is tucked behind her ears, upon which hang a simple set of gold earrings. Keima catches a glimpse of the clean apartment.

"Hello, Yukinoshita-san! How's Youko?"

"She's locked herself up in her room," the mother replies worriedly. "I tried to talk her into going to the game yesterday, but she wouldn't listen, even though everyone was looking forward to seeing her play. She hasn't even come out to eat..."

Their voices fade as the door shuts.

Even God is feeling disbelief. "Th-the mom has a runaway spirit too?!"

"Yes," Merui answers, pulling off the invisible hagoromo. "Yukinoshita Harumi. Our third target."

X

The two Spirit Squad teams sit together outside Whiteflower Apartments.

Their faces express varying degrees of "troubled."

Keima has placed his PFP in his pocket and has crossed his arms. He had never dealt with three runaway spirits at once. It was almost like having three ticking time bombs, except with three different countdowns that could speed up and down like an unmanned roller coaster; to top it off, you weren't allowed to see the timer.

Elsie gloomily sweeps the floor, a habit she has when she is feeling anxious. "This turned out to be more complicated than we thought," she remarks sadly. Keima wonders if the devils were trained for this sort of thing. Having Elsie as his partner though, it probably wouldn't have mattered if they were.

"Now you understand." Merui pushes off the wall she had been leaning on. "This will have to be a three-way runaway spirit capture operation."

"I suppose their fears and desires are connected to each other, which is why you're calling it a three-way capture," Keima says, still in thought.

"That's right."

God stands up and dusts his pants. "Seems simple enough."

The statement receives shocked and disbelieving looks from everyone.

"Simple?" Merui repeats incredulously.

"When you look at the situation," Keima begins slowly, as though speaking to a small child or a very dim person, "you'd naturally think each girl has her own separate problem." He pulls out his PFP and resumes his game. "Actually, all you have to do is identify the common denominator. Once you solve the common denominator, everything will right itself. Deal with the core problem surrounding all three girls, and you drive out the spirits."

Merui lets this speech sink in. Her next words are measured. "You really shouldn't be saying things like that so easily. You don't even know their profiles."

"**Yukinoshita Youko.**" Keima, his eyes not leaving the PFP, recites the name clearly and quickly; you could _hear_ him saying it in bold. "Ace of the soccer team, but hates the attention. Became overly upset when told to 'disappear,' probably because she's seriously considered it. She's the Pressured Leader Type who feels everything is her responsibility. **Sagami Rei**. Hangs out with a bunch of hoodlums, but is concerned enough by Youko to pay her a visit. Probably a childhood playmate who can't keep up with her model student of a friend, whom she both hates and admires, so she goes the other direction. Finally, **Yukinoshita Harumi**, the mother. To put it simply, Control Freak." Keima did not miss a single beat in either speech or game.

After a stunned silence, Merui turns angrily to Maggie. "D-did you give them the profiles?!"

"N-no!" Maggie pipes.

"The clues were all there," Keima intones matter-of-factly. "Sagami Rei has the spiky hair and piercings; she wants to rebel, the opposite of Youko, who tried to take responsibility for her team's _horrible_ and _foolish_ actions."

Keima's emphatic last sentence makes everyone remember the broken PFP.

"As for the mother, you saw how immaculate that apartment was, and how she couldn't handle her daughter's isolation. Obviously, there's no communication going on. Besides," Keima pushes up his glasses and declares loudly, "tight curls and that kind of jewelry on a woman who lives in a cheap place like this?! Sure signs of class consciousness!"

Everyone begins to wonder if the boy is crazy; he carries on.

"She's probably pushing Youko to be 'the best' so she could 'have the life I never had,' or some overdone plot like that. The issue _now_ is narrowing down possibilities for the core problem. _So!_" His eyes leave the PFP to meet Merui's for the first time. "What was your plan?"

Merui is still reeling from shock at his fast analysis. All three of them are. Though much of his argument had seemed to jump to conclusions rather quickly, they had all been fairly accurate based on Maggie and Merui's notes from observing the girls. Was he really able to logically deduce all that after seeing each girl only once? Perhaps he was just lucky?

Just who the hell is this guy?

Oh, wait, he had asked a question.

Merui tries to keep up. "P-plan?"

"You had an original plan, didn't you?" Keima says impatiently, "Before I made the kaketama in Youko's heart stronger and rendering that plan too risky to execute." It was the same reason Merui needed his strength right now. Keima had guessed she had not yet formulated a new strategy after Youko's unexpected depression.

Merui is still feeling out of her depth. "W-well, I was going to play the part of the Lone-wolf Bad Girl and become friends with Rei."

If Merui is out of her depth, the two devils observing Merui and Keima are now drowning.

"Then Youko would try to stop her," Merui continues vaguely, "then I would introduce a life-threatening situation to make both girls grow up emotionally. That in turn would teach the mother that Youko is her own person and must live her own life."

"NAIVE!" Keima shouts, making everyone jump. From this point on, the devils, wearing confused expressions, will look back and forth at the two otakus.

"If I were you," Keima asserts, "I would have gone the Black Prince route, have both girls fall in love with me, then go off with a different girl, thus strengthening their friendship by providing a common enemy (myself) and making their other problems seem just as trivial as said enemy!" He finishes this speech very rapidly.

"What kind of route is that?!" The devils look at Merui, who has reverted from dazed and awe-struck to angry. "That's not going to solve _any_ of their problems!"

"Yes, it will!" They look at Keima, who is now impassioned. "It's a common plot! In games!"

"I can't play a Black Prince! I can't make them fall for me!"

"Why not?"

"'Cause I'm a girl!"

Keima stops at this statement, then promptly returns to his PFP. "Well then. It's impossible for you after all."

The three girls hit the ground in comic fashion.

"Still, to call yourself a 'girl' is a bit of a stretch," God goes on off-handedly. "Most real girls have some physical parameters to them, no matter how mediocre. You don't seem to fit any." He looks at Merui abruptly. "On that note, are you even human?"

"K-kami-sama, that's mean!" Elsie says, offended, but glad to finally reach an intellectual ground she can walk on, or at least, trip less often than she usually does.

Merui looks away in disinterest. "Typical. A boy who shuts himself into games _would_ have such a limited understanding of people present in the real world...

...is what I'd like to say, but... I'm impressed." Merui straightens up. "Yosh, fanboy-kun!"

She points at him.

It has such theatric force that Keima steps back, a horrible, sick premonitory feeling uncurling in his stomach. _...F-fanboy-kun? _he thinks weakly.

Merui's eyes flash behind her glasses. Keima actually sees them for the first time. "Because you must take responsibility for throwing off my plans, I shall accept your help! However, I will be in charge, and you're going to have to do exactly as I say!"

* * *

**I like reviews, so please do it! Any kind of feedback is appreciated! :)**


	3. The Girl who Cried

It is uncreatively called the Help Club because its goal is to help people.

Club meetings are held every day after school in Building B, Room 210.

Sole and presiding member: Yuigahama Merui. Apparently she had chased out all other members so she could have the classroom to herself.

And because she had it to herself, it now looked like a second-hand manga store that couldn't afford shelves. Nevertheless, it was a tidy manga store, with everything neatly arranged by genre first, publisher second, then author and title.

Here was where God met a rather different member of the real.

Here is also where the result of that meeting begins.

X

"A WEEK!" Merui announces from behind the teacher's desk, which she has situated front and center of the classroom. Keima and Elsie are sitting in front of the desk as though there for an interview. Maggie has taken a spot in one of the class seats.

"I'm giving us one week, tops," Merui repeats, oscillating a mechanical pencil between her index and middle fingers. "Any more might be dangerous at the rate Youko's kaketama is growing. To that end, I need to know how you fill hosts' gaps so I can plan the most efficient strategy. Maggie has told me that you've captured thirteen, and I know that's not a number to sneeze at. So..." she looks at God "...how'd you do it?"

Elsie answers before Keima can stop her. "Love!" she says brightly.

Merui stops oscillating the pencil. "Love?"

Elsie answers before Keima recovers from shock. "That's right! Kami-sama makes the girls fall in love with him! Usually the spirit comes out when he kisses them!"

The cheerful statement results in a stunned silence; Merui has dropped her pencil.

Eventually she asks Elsie, carefully and slowly, "He's mentioned making them fall for him before... so he does this by kissing them?"

Keima wonders why she's asking Elsie and not him.

"Mmm... Most of them," Elsie answers doubtfully, then turns to Keima. "I think there was only one spirit we caught without you having to kiss the host, isn't that right, Kami-sama?"

Keima's hands are flat on his knees. He finds he cannot answer. Reflecting back, he had never actually thought of how his method of capturing real girls would appear to other real people. In games, girls were designed to be captured; in the real world, he had been capturing them as if it were a game. Some long-forgotten vestigial part of him that still responded to reality unexpectedly twisted in shame.

But... making them fall in love had been necessary. He wasn't wrong.

"So..." Merui continues with a little cough, "we're talking _lips_ here, right?"

"That's right," Elsie affirms, her tone less enthusiastic, since she is no longer quite sure she was answering Merui's questions correctly. There was something vaguely heavy and foreboding about the current mood, and Elsie was beginning to suspect she was the cause.

"And I assume many of them were young ladies who have never experienced their first kisses before?" It was a fair assumption. Teens were the age group that had the worst life crises, so they were the ones most likely to have gaps in their hearts. Puberty was the turning point of people's lives, after all. Keima was a high school student, so he was surrounded by girls of that age group. At that age, most Japanese girls are only beginning to _think_ about being more physical with a boy.

Elsie is stumped. "Oh... w-well... I don't know... Kami-nii-sama?"

Keima knew it was none of this Merui character's business. Whether they were first kisses or not was extraneous information that wouldn't have helped with the capture. Keima could have refused to answer. But then, why refuse to answer that question? Would that mean he was considering those kisses as something personal, as something more than what needed to be done?

God speaks for the first time. "...I don't know for sure... but, probably."

Merui, in any other circumstance, would have stopped right there.

This wasn't any other circumstance.

"How many?" she asks, her voice level. "How many first kisses have you gotten?"

Each captured girl flits through Keima's mind. He remembered them all. Ayumi, Mio, Kanon, Shiori, Kusunoki, Chihiro, Nagase, Tsukiyo, Minami, Rieko-san, Sumire, Nanaka, Tenri.

"Nine... maybe eleven."

The slap felt loud enough for the whole world to hear. Maggie and Elsie gasp, hands flying to their mouths.

Keima's left cheek stung.

"And you're fine with this method?"

Keima meets her eyes with an even gaze. "The kiss? Or the filling of the gap?"

"The deceit! The intimacy!"

"If it leads to the best ending, then yes!"

There is another heavy silence. One that seemed as though some unspoken mental measuring is happening between God and Merui.

Merui's eyes haven't left Keima's. When she finally speaks, her tone is even. "Maggie, would you please fetch some ice and a towel for his cheek?"

"Y-yes," Maggie yelps, standing suddenly, "of course!"

Merui sighs. She wrings her hand and returns to normal. "Sorry about that. It would've been bad if you were a creep in this line of work." She smiles wanly at the other devil. "Sorry for scaring you, Elsie-san. You've got a good buddy after all."

Elsie hiccups. She is nearly in tears. "I already knew that!"

Maggie returns to the room with the ice.

Keima places it in a towel and presses it to his cheek. He flinches. She really didn't hold back.

Merui comes to a decision. "Now... you may hit me as well."

The two devils are shocked. Keima merely stares, as though expecting this.

Then, as though coming to a decision himself, Keima stands. "Understood."

"Kami-nii-sama!" Elsie wails, pulling on his sleeve, "You can't hit a girl!"

"It's all right, Elsie-san," Merui assures her. "Consider this an equalizing ceremony. Fanboy-kun has done some hateful things, I have too... Don't hold back," she tells Keima.

Merui shuts her eyes and steels herself.

Keima just looks tired. What useless pride, asking to be hit like this. What is she, a samurai?

He flicks her forehead.

"OW! Ahh, it wasn't a slap, but it still really hurt! What kind of muscles do your fingers have?!" she hisses, rubbing it. "Stupid gamer hands. You sure about this?!" she demands, tears at the corners of her eyes. "You're not getting another chance, you know!"

"It's fine. I didn't hold back either." He lets out an extremely exasperated sigh. "Geez. What a flashy way of getting your point across." God draws himself up. "I get what you're saying and I assure you, I have absolutely NO interest in the _real_ world, much less _real_ girls! All I want is to get rid of this guillotine choker as fast as possible so that I can get back to my peaceful gaming days. Love just happened to be my specialty, which is why I've been using it. If there are other, more efficient ways to drive out the spirits, believe me I would've used those as well." He sits down with finality and presses the ice against his still-stinging cheek.

Merui, still rubbing her forehead, admits after a brief pause, "...You're a pretty remarkable person, Fanboy-kun."

Keima snaps, "DON'T CALL PEOPLE NICKNAMES WHEN YOU'RE COMPLIMENTING THEM!" He looks away. "Hmph! I already knew that anyway. Can we please start planning now? Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Nope," Merui replies promptly and with relief. "Your chosen method makes everything so much easier. With your 'love,' we won't need a week." She takes up the pencil again and opens the notebook on the desk. "We'll get the three spirits out in three days."

"Th-three days?!" the two devils yelp, standing up.

Keima puts down the ice. He places a fist to his lips in a thoughtful manner. "You already have a plan."

Merui is scribbling in the notebook. "Yep." She smirks. "You're not the only remarkable person around here, Fanboy-kun."

X

Elsie and Keima are in an elevator.

Keima grumbles angrily, "That fangirl... treating the world as if it functions like manga... using me like one of her characters! WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? HOW DARE SHE LOOK DOWN ON GOD!"

"I never thought we'd ever meet someone else like you, Onii-sama," Elsie says happily. "Merui-san says a lot of complicated things! Like Kami-sama! And when she heard about your capturing methods, she decided to let you do that. A great planner! Like Kami-sama!"

"DON'T COMPARE ME TO THAT WOMAN!" Keima yells so loudly his voice cracked twice.

Keima didn't like the plan. It was ridiculously sloppy and was heavily contingent on his performance.

Not only that, the secretive fangirl didn't tell him _anything_!

All she did was give him a set of parameters to adopt and the haughtily-delivered instruction, "You must make Yukinoshita Youko fall in love with you in three days!" What did she think capturing was all about?! Sure, he could capture twenty girls in one day, over a hundred in God Mode, but the real have never, not once, EVER cooperated! All the troublesome pain in capturing the real was going to happen again, and that fangirl doesn't even consider how a time constraint would aggravate it.

Hmph! That was all as well! He had expected it, prepared for it, and fully resigned himself to it. Anyway, he was God, and he could capture anyone under any challenge.

What _really_ dug under his skin was...

"Elsie... Let me tell you something good." God pauses. When the silence became whole and complete, God breaks it. "You must NEVER break the Fourth Wall."

"F-fourth wall?" Elsie repeats in confusion.

Keima crosses his arms. "Why do you think games sell?"

Kami-sama is asking her a question! Yosh, it was time to show him the fruits of his teachings. She desperately searches her mental file cabinets reserved for her buddy's lectures. "Eto... eto... Ah!" She brightens, victoriously finding what must be the answer! "Games sell because they're pretty?"

"IMMERSIONNNNN!" Keima yells, blowing Elsie away. "Games take you to a different world! A world where everything is ordered and beautiful! Reality is a sucky place, but games give the player the chance to remove the shackles of reality and live in an ideal!"

The glass of a giant PFP screen covers a beautiful landscape inhabited by beautiful, 2D women.

"The Fourth Wall protects this ideal world!"

Keima throws a tantrum. "That Yuigahama Merui thinks the ideal and the real are the same thing! Living in reality, but treating it like manga! To connect the ideal to the real... to break that Fourth Wall so carelessly... mixing these two worlds... IS WRONG! IT'S VERY VERY VERY WRONG!"

Elsie steps back in nervousness. "Eheheh, aren't you overreacting, Onii-sama?" She searches the file cabinet again for something to cheer him up with. "Eto... eto... Ah! Onii-sama, a-aren't manga and games two different things?"

"The principle behind the two is the same." Keima has leaned his forehead gloomily against the elevator wall. "Besides, lots of scenario writers for galgames work in similar backgrounds as manga staff. They're like family. And anyway immersion is immersion!

Stories and characters, the girls and their world... these are sacred to the human psyche! You must never confuse it with the real!"

"But- but- aren't you doing the same thing as Merui-san?" Elsie says earnestly. "Don't you capture girls the way you do in games?"

"Again, don't compare me to that fangirl!" God snaps. "I have NEVER considered reality and games as the same thing."

The elevator door opens.

"Elsie, it's time."

Elsie was still trying to understand his lecture and file everything properly in the mental cabinet. "Oh, right!" With a swish of her arms, she makes herself invisible with the hagoromo.

Keima knocks on room 310.

The door opens.

Keima holds out his flowers to the surprised mother.

"Is Yukinoshita Youko-san home?" he says politely, completely changed from a mere ten seconds ago.

From a snarling, purist, otaku, to a normal - one could almost say _charming_ - young man, Elsie couldn't help but stare, absolutely transfixed, at the transformation.

Keima went on earnestly, "I heard she didn't come to the soccer match... and I think it might have been my fault." He looks up, and the mother receives the full effect of his handsome young face. "Please, I'd like to apologize to her!"

X

In all her seventeen years, Yukinoshita Youko had never felt as miserable as she did the day before the Maijima match. Until then, school had been demanding, practice had been grueling, and both took up so much time that she quit the student committee because she felt overwhelmed by the work. Everyone had been nice about it though... fellow members had smiled and told her in polite disappointment, "Aw, that's too bad! You were such an active member too! But I guess it would be asking too much for you to stay if you're aiming for valedictorian _and_ soccer captain." They would finish admiringly, "A lot of people have their hopes pinned on you, Yukinoshita-san!"

Everyone had faith in her, Yukinoshita Youko, Fujioka High School's top student. "You have a bright future ahead, Yukinoshita. Study hard for the national exams, and you might just make this school famous!" said her teachers. "Yukinoshita, I just _know_ you can make our school known at the National Youth Sports Association!" said her coach.

Then, as conceited as it may be to admit herself, apparently she wasn't bad-looking. She was often told that she was pretty. Once, she had even been told that that was why she seemed to stand out more than the other top students. In national school journals, which her mother collected and discreetly showed to every guest, the board had always chosen her to be the face of Fujioka Public School.

The encouragement from school, the support of her family, the admiration of her classmates, were all things she was lucky enough to have.

Then why?

Why did she feel as though she was... s_uffocating?_

Youko, lying on her bed, rolls over to face the wall. Twilight has spilled into her room through venetian blinds, casting blue prison-bar shadows. It was 4:45 p.m. She had done nothing all day.

When the tears came, she immediately grabbed a pillow and stuffed her face.

Really? Crying? What was there to cry about?

...It had begun when she left the student committee. She had come home that day feeling as though she had done something awful, even though she had a legitimate excuse. What was so wrong about leaving? Why did their kind, disappointed faces keep appearing in her mind?

She was going the right direction, wasn't she? Her mother and her father pushed her to be the best she could be, and she was. It had been hard. She had worked harder than anyone else. So why? Why was leaving the student committee such a bad thing? She did everything else, why couldn't she take a break? They expected too much!

And then the game... the game she missed... when everyone had been relying on her... her team had come to visit the next day. They were worried about her being sick. But you could tell they were also disappointed about her absence. Who wouldn't be?

Rei had also come to visit to see how she was doing. Rei wasn't disappointed, but she didn't understand anything... nobody did.

Youko presses her face harder into the pillow.

Then there was that boy. Akiko-chan had broken his PFP. Youko had tried to be responsible about it, but he just denied her! She had tried to make things right, but she failed...

She failed...

_Yukinoshita Youko... failed._

Youko clutches her chest. Her heart felt so heavy... everything seemed so pointless...

_She just wanted to disappear..._

There is a gentle knock on the door. "Youko?" comes her mother's muffled voice. "You haven't eaten lunch yet. Aren't you hungry?"

"I'm fine!" her daughter calls, trying not to sound so weak. "I'll come out later."

"Are you all right, Youko?" Her mother sounds concerned. "If you're still feeling sick, I can call the doctor!"

_Now I'm making her worried,_ thinks Youko guiltily. _But please, just leave me alone..._

"I'm okay! I just want to rest," she says, trying to sound as positive as possible, which is difficult because she is starting to cry again. "Don't worry!"

There is a knock on the apartment door outside. Her mother goes to answer it. Youko sighs, thankful for the distraction.

Then, the sound of an argument. Youko can't hear what her mother is saying, but there is a male voice. A familiar male voice...

Youko gets up, and quietly goes to the door. She presses her ear to it.

"I'm not leaving until I see her!" is the earnest declaration.

She knew that voice!

Youko steps back in shock. He had come to visit. Why? Did he come for the money? Wasn't he still angry with her?

Youko takes a moment for it all to sink in. Then, steeling herself, she opens the door.

X

_It's him. I'm sure it's him. _Youko thinks to herself. _Katsuragi, right? That's what the girl had said when she was apologizing. "Please don't take his behavior personally. That's just the way Katsuragi is."_

The boy who introduced himself as Katsuragi Keima is sitting across from her at the low living room table, but this Katsuragi is not as Youko remembers.

"Thank you!" he tells her mom with a charming smile as she places tea on the table.

_It can't be him! _Youko shakes her head as he takes a dignified sip of tea. The boy at the stadium had been snarling and angry, like a little monster. But the Katsuragi in front of her is...

Wasn't he more skinny-looking... and not so... toned? And didn't he have glasses? The Katsuragi in her memory looked like a member of some computer science club, but this Katsuragi had a totally different aura.

His hair was still tousled, but not in the rolled-out-of bed way she remembered. It was the kind of disheveled that looked rather dashing. He wore a printed T-shirt, dark jeans, and wore simple, ropey bracelets. He was slim, but had a nice, almost athletic figure.

And then there was the bouquet, which is in her hands. It had white lilies and chrysanthemums bundled in blue wrapping. It smelled freshly-cut and fragrant.

"Yukinoshita-san."

She looks up, startled. He has scooted back.

Then he bows, palms on floor. "I was out-of-line. I'm sorry." When he sits up again, there is a quiet loneliness to his eyes. He seemed to be one of those people who looked directly at whoever he was speaking to, and Youko found it unsettling to hold his gaze. "The truth is I was feeling really stressed." He looks away and shyly scratches his head. "There's a baseball tournament coming up. My team and I are trying to get into the Koshien."

Youko tries to conceal her shock. He plays baseball? She would never have guessed!

"I was just blowing off steam on my PFP when the accident happened and I... sorry again," he says, bowing once more.

When the initial shock has subsided, Youko says brightly, "I-it wasn't your fault. I was feeling very ill suddenly, so I couldn't come to the game."

He bites his lip. "That's a shame. I expect the whole team was relying on you too."

Youko's heart suddenly feels as though it is being crushed. She looks away. "I- I don't know what you mean."

Katsuragi is surprised. "Eh? Aren't you the ace of the Fujioka Tornadoes?" He smiles, as though amused. "'Yukinoshita Youko, the Eastern Gale!' I thought I heard someone say."

She feels ready to cry again, but manages to say, "It's kind of an embarrassing title, but yeah."

"That's tough..."

He sounded so sad that Youko's heart skips a beat.

"...It's tough when everyone expects so much of you."

She looks up at him, her breath caught in her throat. He is staring at his tea.

"They don't understand how much they can be a burden, sometimes."

He is still staring at his tea, and he had said the statement as though distracted. Youko agreed. She fully agreed with him.

_That's right! They don't understand at all! They're a burden. Everyone's a burden._

What was this? This feeling of her heart getting crushed again? She unconsciously grips the flowers in her hands tighter.

"Katsuragi-kun-" she begins desperately. She wanted to tell him. She wanted to let it all out and scream when-

_BRRT! BRRT! BRRT! BRRT! BRRT!_

Youko's mouth is half open as Katsuragi pulls out his vibrating phone. He turns the vibration off. "Gomen ne, Yukinoshita-san. I have to go soon. You were saying?"

"Ah-" her voice is a squeak, "N-no, it's nothing!"

X

At the doorway.

Youko fidgets. "I promise to send you the money as soon as we have it. Sorry about your PFP."

Katsuragi smiles. "Please, don't worry about it too much. Coach was getting angry at me anyway for playing. Take your time."

He turns to leave, and although Youko wanted to call him back, she couldn't.

She shuts the door behind her, the bouquet still in her hands. She goes dazedly through the living room where her mother is standing and holding a plate.

"Youko! Now that you're out, you should eat," her mother says kindly as Youko steps into her room.

"Hm? Oh, maybe later, Mom..." The door shuts.

X

As Keima and Elsie step out of the building, Elsie removes her invisible hagoromo. "Kami-sama was like a different person," she says in amazement. He was dressed differently from his regular attire too; that, and the acting made him almost completely unrecognizable. "You were so nice to her even though you're usually very mean to girls the first time you meet."

"A bad impression makes the target remember you. That's why you do it in the first place," he explains as he pulls out his cell phone, which is actually Elsie's. Keima never did have a use for phones. "In Youko's case, the bad impression has already happened."

Elsie remembers the broken PFP and his meanness back then. "OH!"

"It'll be risky to stress her any more since the spirit has grown. The important thing now is to establish an empathetic connection," he says, as he types into the phone. "We must make Youko believe that she and I coincidentally suffer from the same problems."

He presses the "send" button.

X

Youko was sitting at her desk, her cheek on the wood, when her phone rang in front of her. With great effort, she pulls herself off the desk and looks at its small screen. She has received a message from an Unknown Sender.

She opens it.

_Almost forgot. Here's my number. - Katsuragi._

For a full minute, Youko does nothing but stare at the phone held delicately in her hands.

Then, placing it back on the desk beside the bouquet, she turns on her laptop, and opens her internet browser.

"Katsuragi Keima," she types into the search bar.

She clicks on the first result, which is the Maijima Academy website, and the information makes her feel sick.

* * *

**Long chapter... please review!**


	4. Preparation

**Thanks to Sadface for beta reading! Best little brother any sister can ask for, I swear.**

* * *

On the Majima Academy site's baseball section, there is team photograph. Katsuragi, a baseball glove on his left hand, kneels front and center of the team.

Youko scrolls down the page.

"Maijima Boys Make a Comeback! Youngest Pitcher Pulls Team to Victory!"

Youko's stomach churns.

"...Maijima's first time in the tournament... unexpected win... the ace, Katsuragi Keima (16) pitches 155 km/hr... high hopes for next season..."

Youko feels sick. She puts her head in her arms.

Katsuragi is the team's ace... just like her. They had high hopes for him, as they did for her.

_"The truth is I was feeling really stressed.. There's a baseball tournament coming up."_

Youko's heart ached... but this time, it was a different feeling from earlier.

_"It's tough when everyone expects so much from you."_

Youko clutches her chest. She wanted to see him!

_"They don't understand how much they can be a burden, sometimes..." _

He understands her. There is someone out there who understands her.

X

X

X

"_Baseball_?" Keima repeats, nonplussed. He is wearing a Maijima baseball uniform made from Maggie's hagoromo.

Maggie holds up a hagoromo tablet camera. "Smile!" There is a bright flash.

"That's right!" Merui affirms Keima's question brightly, hands confidently on her hips, as the photo session continues. "You will be a baseball player because there's a lot of love-drama in the world of baseball! How can you _not_ be an Adachi fan?" she finishes disappointedly.

As Elsie plays, giggling, with several little lens-eyed bug creatures (also made from Maggie's hagoromo) on the table, Merui carries on with her explanation. "Maggie will hack into your school site and make you part of the team. Then we'll steal a couple of articles about shounen baseball aces and replace their names with yours."

Keima rubs his eyes after the most recent flash. "Since my school baseball team sucks, no one will actually check the site to know it's inaccurate. Hmm..." He looks up. "You thought that through?"

"Nope! It wouldn't matter if they found out," Merui says casually, reading over the open notebook in her left hand and idly spinning a pencil in the other.

"Yes it will!" Keima yells. "I'll be blamed for it! Don't just go off and ruin other people's peace!"

"Keima-kun, could you please turn a little to the left?"

He grudgingly turns a little to the left.

"Don't worry! We'll put it back to normal once the operation is over!" Merui snaps the notebook shut. "Manga is reality. If we make this play out like it does in stories, we'll be on the right track..." She frowns at Keima. "Can't you give a more boyish smile? And Maggie, is there anything you can do about his dead eyes? We want them sparkling with idealistic youth! As they are will just depress whoever looks into them."

"Ah!" A thought has struck the other devil, whose arm is now covered with bugs. "But Merui-san, how do we know she'll check the site?"

"Heh _heh_," Merui chuckles, pushing up her glasses. "Elsie-san, let me tell you something useful."

Merui declares:

"The sign of a Modern Girl! When she has a crush, she will look up her beloved's name on the internet!

- Yuigahama Merui"

Elsie is transfixed. Slowly, her face brightens. "I get it! I understand! Merui-san, it makes sense!"

Keima is still looking nonplussed. "What?"

X

The two Runaway Spirit teams stand over a table. Sports magazines, or rather, sports _clothing_ magazines, are strewn on the surface.

Keima takes one look at them, and dives for the classroom exit.

He was fast - well, as fast as gamer's legs could take him - but the hagoromo was faster. It shoots out and wraps around God, effectively binding him.

"Sorry, Keima-kun," Maggie says with genuine apology, as she holds onto the other end.

"Elsie! Elsie save meeeee!" God pleas in desperation.

Elsie looks at each person in shock and confusion. "Eh? Eh? Eh?"

"Elsie-san," Merui begins kindly, "We're going to dress your buddy up. If he's going to play a role, he must look the part. Do you understand?"

"It's not necessary!" God shouts, struggling in the hagoromo cocoon. "A player's parameters don't affect the capture!"

"Elsie-san, wouldn't you like to see Katsuragi-kun in nice outfits? You might not have this opportunity ever again."

Keima had to grudgingly admit, the girl was good. Although Elsie looked scared and doubtful, he could already tell Merui was winning her over. He had to say something, fast.

"Fire trucks! We'll go see fire trucks together again! Remember that time we went to Narusawa station? We could go to another place! With- with more fire trucks!"

Presented with such difficult choices, Elsie finds herself stumped. "Ohhh..." Elsie moans, clutching her spinning head, "...dressing up Kami-sama, or firetrucks with Kami-sama..."

Merui coughs. "'Together' as in... a date?"

A stunned silence befalls the room. Even Keima is shocked. Merui flashes him an evil smile.

Keima growls. Dammit! She _is_ good. Elsie would choose the dress-up because "seeing fire trucks together" is now associated with "date." And Elsie, being a non-targeted real girl, would never even consider going out with him. Or, if she did, that meant that she liked him but was afraid to tell him, so saying yes to "fire trucks" would be the same as confessing, which she isn't ready to do!

Denying or affirming its being a date would also lead to further, more complicated routes he wasn't willing to tackle.

What is the right answer? What can he do to get out of this?

Switch the target!

"MAGGIE! Your buddy is wrong!"

"Merui-chan hasn't been wrong yet," Maggie replies instantly with a smile.

God thrashes in the bind. "What good will this do?! I'll just take off the clothes again during the capture! You're only wasting your time!"

"You won't be able to take them off since they'll be made with Maggie's hagoromo," explains Merui. "She's quite an expert with the thing."

Keima glares at her. "Then I refuse to help you with the capture!"

Merui sighs. "Fanboy-kun, why don't you just give up? I already know you're too honorable to cut our deal short for something as trivial as a makeover. It's not painful. And if you stand still, it'll go by even faster."

"...Elsie?" God looks up to her as his last resort.

Elsie bows. "I'm sorry, Kami-nii-sama, but..." her expression is earnest, "...I-I want to see Kami-nii-sama in nice clothes more than I want to see fire trucks!"

So God had a makeover.

He struggled with tooth and nail, so it was hard to hold him still, even with the hagoromo. After they pacified him by letting him play his PFP, though, everything went much more smoothly.

Excited by the hagoromo camera function Maggie had taught her (or tried to teach her, but failed, so she set it up for Elsie instead), Elsie tried to take pictures of Keima in the different outfits. After the fifth picture or so, Elsie realized the nice clothes were spoiled on him because his rotten expression never changed.

"Not bad..." Merui says thoughtfully, circling him. "I mean, it'll look _good_ when he's actually acting the part and stops being so sullen."

"Keima-kun has such a nice figure!" Maggie says admiringly. "He's so easy to dress."

"I wish Kami-sama had outfits like this," Elsie says, holding up some of Maggie's work based on the magazines. "People would notice his cute face more!"

"I don't think it's his outfit's fault that people don't notice his cute face, Elsie-san. Beauty is skin deep, after all." Merui stops circling. "O-kay! Now that we've decided on the outfit, time for a little illusion magic. Maggie, if you please?"

"An athletic Keima-kun, right?" Maggie says, pulling up her sleeves.

"Doesn't have to be athletic. Toned should be enough. If its too far from the original, Youko-san would notice."

X

X

X

Back to the present, as God enters that same classroom...

A girl with pink highlights, piercings, and a gothified Fujioka uniform greets him exuberantly.

"Masterfully _done_!" she applauds. "I was genuinely surprised! So _that_'s the power of 'love'!" She sniffs. "Even I almost fell for you, I was so touched!" She dabs her eyes with a handkerchief like a proud mother. "Your acting was so smooth, even when you picked up our call-signal."

Comprehension hits God like a brick. "M-merui?"

"Keima-kun," Maggie says, looking up from her hagoromo computer and smiling, "she's looking up your name right now."

They all peer into Maggie's hagoromo, which was stretched like a wide-screen monitor. Several windows showed different parts of the Yukinoshita's apartment.

"And good job planting those bugs, Elsie-san!" says Merui appreciatively, clapping Elsie on the shoulder. "Now we have a nice view of what goes on in their apartment. It's like watching a real life drama!"

"This is stretching the Devil's Privacy Policy," Maggie says in her meek voice, "but there's no choice. It's best to keep that spirit under surveillance."

"She was beginning to get desperate... probably the effect of the spirit," Merui says quietly. "We were able to use that to our advantage by sending Fanboy-kun. Now, she will cling to her savior... You've been staring at me for a while now, Fanboy-kun. Is there a problem?"

"No." Keima is thoughtfully observing her attire. "But I'm beginning to understand your methods."

"Which makes you much brighter than the others I've worked with." Merui strides to the classroom door. Her haughty manner hadn't changed. "You may watch if you'd like... Maggie?"

"Hai!" Maggie says cheerfully. She gets up, holding a basket of spray paint. Then, with a swish of her arms, the hagoromo turns into a uniform, making her look like a Fujioka student.

X

Sagami Rei is not main character material. Her family is average. Her looks are average. Her hobbies, grades, reputation, and seventeen years of living could be described as, yes, average.

What _could_ be said about Sagami Rei is that she was perfectly satisfied being average. She did her homework like any other school girl; she hung out with friends at ice cream parlors, crushed over boy bands, watched evening soaps, helped her mother cook, daydreamed in class, and checked her daily horoscope at the newspaper stand on her way to school every morning.

Sagami Rei was not insecure, a fact she never realized because she never thought about things like that.

She was - and still is - the upside of a kite.

While most humans tried to navigate the wind, enter other air channels, and always, always watched the ground for fear of crashing, Rei was simply lying on her back, watching the sky instead.

Her kite was so light, it was like the very breeze that carried it.

"I guess... " Merui thinks idly to herself, as she waits for Maggie's signal, "...even kites like that occasionally get sucked into storms."

X

Rei sighs as she marches quickly down the stairs. It had all gone so wrong. Yes, she had told Hina, Ruka, and Saika that she was up for the quadruple date - they had even gone shopping together for her outfit - but the date wasn't fun, they got into trouble, and the guys all turned out to be creeps.

And now, she just had a fight with them because she said didn't want to go on another one.

It had been a bad idea to try and hang out with the girls. Her other friends had told her not to, and they had been right.

Rei sighs again as she shuts her shoe locker and leaves the building.

She just wanted to be part of a flashier crowd.

_...Like Youko._

But whenever she tried to fit in with a group she thought was cool, her efforts went to waste. She tried a sport, she didn't like it. She tried a club, she didn't like that either. Music? Nope. Art? No. Library committee, student council, teacher's assistant, no, no, no, no, nooooo!

"AARGH!" She kicks a tree and stubs her toe. Rei kneels in pain, clutching her maligned foot.

She sniffs.

She missed Youko. They'd been friends since first grade. But ever since Youko started taking on so much school work, they'd been drifting apart.

Youko worked hard all the time, and because Rei could see how seriously she took everything, and how everyone responded to her dedication... Rei somehow felt like she ought to _do_ something too.

Everyone was always smiling around Youko, and Youko seemed to always accept it smilingly. It was a world Rei didn't understand, and the closer she tried to get to it, the further it seemed to get.

The further it seemed to pull her best friend away.

_I want to be part of something flashy! I want to be different!_

Rei turns a corner, and bumps into someone.

"Ah, gomen!" Rei looks up, and the first thing she thinks of is, "Wooow! She's cute!"

The girl had long hair and pink highlights. Her ears were covered with piercings. Her uniform, although the same as everyone else's, had been slightly re-stitched to look more sexy.

And her eyes. There was something cool and confident about them. The girl treats her to a smirk. "Watch where you're going, kid." She smiles at Rei as she walks away, "By the way, cute earrings!"

Rei blushes as she goggles after the girl.

"Yuigahamaaa!" another girl calls out to her from a distance, waving. They meet up, laugh, and saunter away, chatting happily.

Rei watches them until they're out of sight. Then, she turns away, sniffing, and quickly marches home.

X

"Kami-sama, I don't get it," Elsie whispers, pulling on Keima's sleeve. She and Keima are standing behind a tree, watching the scene unfold. "All Merui-san did was bump into Rei-san, and all Maggie-chan did was meet up with Merui-san afterwards..." When her buddy doesn't answer, Elsie looks at him. "Kami-sama?" He is still watching Merui-san and Maggie-chan coming this way. Elsie looks at the scene again, hoping to see what her buddy was so intent on. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. She watches as Rei leaves quickly.

"It's perfect..." Keima suddenly says, his voice quiet. "...The First Meeting went perfectly... they even gave her a name to remember by."

Elsie was now utterly confused. The first meeting was perfect? What name to remember _who_ by? It was also very strange to see her buddy complimenting something that wasn't a game. Elsie was mulling these things over when-

"Elsie. Let's go home."

"E-eh?" Keima has already resumed playing his PFP. "B-but I thought Nii-sama wanted to see how Merui-san works!"

"I've already seen it. The next phase won't be as interesting."

"Ara, you're both still here?" Merui and Maggie arrive at the tree. "We were just going onto the next phase," Merui says, picking up the basket of spray paint they had left by the tree. "Wanna help? I'm sure Fanboy-kun has already figured it out," she adds a little sullenly.

"We were just leaving."

Merui nods. "All right then."

"Let's go, Elsie." Keima starts to walk away.

"Don't forget to text Youko back once she's found an excuse to send you a message! We're gunning for three days here."

"And don't overdo it with the spray paint. They can call authorities, you know." Keima replies, without looking back.

Elsie whispers to Maggie before leaving, "Do you know what they're talking about?"

Maggie shakes her head sadly. "Not at all... Merui-chan doesn't tell me anything either. I was just told to bring spray paint."

"They seem to understand each other without saying anything!" Elsie says worriedly.

Maggie nods, smiling. "Yes, I've noticed that too."

"Elsie!"

"Maggie!"

"I should go," Elsie says apologetically. "Nii-sama will get angry if I'm too slow. Maijima is too far to walk from here, so I have to carry him."

"I understand. I have to go too. I'll see you tomorrow, Elsie-san."

The two teams go their separate ways, until the next morning, when the school is in an uproar.

* * *

**Give me feedback you guys! XD It'll help me write! What are your impressions of my girls so far? I've given Keima, like, five new ones.**


	5. Mistaken Identities

Keima and Elsie had been sitting in the Help Club clubroom at Fujioka High when the school speakers blared on, the feedback and angry voice making the entire school cringe.

"-EALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! YOU'VE VANDALIZED THE WHOLE GYM! DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE THAT PLACE IS?!"

"Yes sir!" The young woman's firm and confident tone is at complete odds with the earlier, uncontrolled shouting. "I understand _precisely_ how expensive that place is. Using the school budget to replace the floors every year instead of putting it into things that actually matter! My name is Yuigahama Merui, and I DEFY this flawed system!"

Elsie had been watching the speaker in the room in mounting horror. She waves her broom frantically. "K-kami-sama! What is she doing?!"

Keima, sitting cross-legged in a class chair, is hitting buttons rapidly as he anticipates his current target's conversation (they are having a rooftop lunch break). Without looking up, he answers, "She's going for Rebellious Ally of Justice to get Rei's admiration."

In another classroom, Rei's eyes are as wide as saucers, and her mouth is slightly parted in disbelief.

"I would say it's probably working, too," Keima adds.

X

The chaos in the faculty room continues.

"SUGIMOTO-SAN, PLEASE STOP! THE MICROPHONE IS ON!" plead the teachers as they try to keep their vice principal from tearing Merui's throat out.

"THAT GIRL!" he growls like a caged rhinoceros, "SHE'S GETTING AWAY! STOP HER!"

"UPDATED TEXTBOOKS!" Merui shouts. Then she jumps over a table, narrowly avoiding several teachers' desperate swipes; papers scatter in the air.

"BETTER TEACHERS!" She hops onto a chair and points at Sugimoto-san. "Not the lazy ones we only keep because of their influence in the Board!"

Rustling and shouting fill the room. The strained microphone, which amplified their voices until it shook the building, seemed to be missing. Merui slides under the P.E. teacher's legs.

"LOWER CANTEEN FOOD PRICES! AND FINALLY-"

As she stands at the doorway, she yells, "A MANGA SECTION IN THE LIBRARY!"

Merui runs.

Teachers, tripping over each other, give chase.

The goth girl turns a corner, the teachers follow suit and carry on running down the hall.

After the vice principal, huffing and puffing, has finally passed the corner, two girls in the invisible and soundproof hagoromo make their way to the opposite stairwell.

"Good job with the microphone... hiding it was as nice touch."

"Thank you... Was the manga section part necessary?"

"Just thought maybe they'd consider it, you know... along with the other stuff..."

"They won't remember any of this, though."

"I know. But I couldn't resist."

X

Before the custodians discovered the state of the gym... no, earlier still, when they were just beginning to realize that the gym keys were nowhere to be found...

...actually, earlier, _earlier_ still, while students filtered into school for zero period...

Youko finally comes to school.

And though no one will notice this fact, she is in a good mood.

Even as she places her shoes in her locker, Youko is remembering last night, the whole of which was spent texting Katsuragi.

Youko blushes as she shuts the locker door.

She had spent a long time formulating the perfect message, one that would initiate a _long_ conversation (so obviously not a "yes or no" question), and one that wouldn't make her seem too eager to talk to him.

Cell phone in hand, she had decided to go the "strictly business" approach.

"Katsuragi-kun, what game were you playing on your PFP?"

She immediately regretted sending it. Was that too personal? It _was_ a business question, so why did it sound personal? Would he get angry at her for bringing up the sad affair of his PFP? She was already typing another message to clarify her reasons for asking, when Katsuragi replied.

"_Last Fantasy Tactics... _Why?"

She quickly and eagerly texts back, "Because I was wondering how much it costs. It probably got broken with the PFP, right? I was thinking we should pay for that as well." Aaand send!

Good, good... now she would seem like a nice, responsible-

Wait, no she wouldn't. Youko, sitting at her desk in her room, has frozen in horror. Wasn't that sort of information something she should've discussed when they met? He would realize she had overlooked something! He would think she wasn't really taking his broken PFP seriously! Oh, but she had planned this message from the beginning!

"Ahhh, I'm so stupid!" Youko beats her head with her fist. Her phone rings again, vibrating in her hand. She opens the message quickly.

"It's no problem. I have a Playfield Network account. I can re-download the game anytime as long as there's internet."

"Oh," she says aloud, sighing. "Thank goodness." Then Youko stiffens, realizing she has stumbled upon another predicament.

What should she say next?

The logical course of the dialogue would go something like, "I see," but that would end the conversation!

Youko melts onto the table. Oh, she really didn't think this through... After a minute of agonizing over what to say next, she reluctantly settles on the following uncreative message:

"Is that so? I'm glad."

And because she didn't want to risk Katsuragi thinking she didn't care about his texts by taking too long (it had already been two minutes), she sends it.

That was it. Her last chance.

Youko flops onto the bed, giving up. She could never be friends with Katsuragi. He wasn't a classmate, or even the friend of a friend; he didn't come to the same school, or even lived in the same town. They had only met twice, both due to unusual circumstances that would probably never happen again, and once he'd collected the money, he would leave her life forever.

_Tingaling!_ The phone vibrates in her hand.

That's probably Akiko-chan, Youko thinks, as she looks at the tex-

_Katsuragi Keima (1 unread message)_

Youko promptly sits up. She stares at the screen. She opens the message.

"Yukinoshita-san really worries about this sort of thing, huh? ^_^ You have never played on consoles before?"

She reads it again. She stops. She reads it a third time. Then, suddenly, the phone rings once more, and she is so surprised that she tosses it in the air, fumbles it, and just barely saves it from hitting the ground.

She is in a compromising position now - on her belly, her lower body on the bed, her upper body on the floor. In her right hand is the cell phone. On its small screen, another message from Katsuragi is displayed.

"Ah, what am I saying? I suspect Yukinoshita-san has a different hobby. My parents always get mad at me for playing games. They say it rots the brain -_-"

Youko can't help but smile at his honesty. She rights herself, and types, "My mom always gets mad at me for watching TV dramas. She thinks most TV shows nowadays are trash ^_^; 'Youko, you're better off reading classic Japanese literature!' she says. But that's not fun at all!"

_Tingaling!_

"Haha! I get you! XD They always expect me to study all the time too! They seem to forget I'm still human... But Japanese schools are really competitive, huh? I hear that in America..."

_Tingaling!_

_Tingaling!_

_Tingaling!_

On went the exchange of texts until two in the morning. They talked about their parents, school, hobbies, soccer and baseball. They seemed to have a lot in common. Sometime in the night, Youko wondered if she should call him, since they were texting so much anyway, but Youko decided she wasn't quite ready for that yet. At around ten she asked if he was going to bed...

"I have a test tomorrow, so I'm gonna stay up and study ^_^;;"

Youko was surprised. "EHH? Why didn't you say anything? Then I shouldn't be distracting you!"

His reply was so swift, Youko felt her cheeks heat up.

"I like talking to you. Keep me company. This stuff's really boring, and I need you to help me stay awake! TT_TT Please?"

She received another one a few seconds after.

"That was kind of selfish... Never mind! Yukinoshita-sama should go to bed because she needs her beauty sleep!"

Youko laughed. "Ok. I'll keep you company if you'd like ^_^ But don't blame me if you do badly on the test!"

"Never! I'll only blame you a little bit!"

Youko laughed again. "That's still blaming me!"

Youko had never felt so warm as she lay on her bed with the phone on her chest, waiting for its reassuring ring. By around one, she was already curled up in her blankets, with the phone on her pillow beside her head. She was beginning to fall asleep.

_Tingaling..._

"Ne, Yukinoshita-san..."

She scrolled down.

"The last time I was at Fujioka, there was this big game store I wanted to go to, but I was afraid I'd get lost looking for it. Fujioka City's bigger than I thought..."

When she finished the message, she read it again. Then she waited, her heart pounding. The next message arrived soon after.

"...Do you think you can help me out?"

Youko gulped. Her hands shook as she typed. "Of course!"

There was a pause on the other end. Then... eventually...

"Ok... so... I'll pass by your place at four tomorrow...?"

"...Sounds good." Youko is blushing.

"OK..."

"I'll see you, then."

"Yeah... See you... Thanks."

Though no one will notice the fact, Youko has gone to school in the pink haze of youth. As she sat waiting for class to start, she reread her favorite messages from her inbox.

X

One of the first things that Merui had given Keima after the makeover was a thick sheaf of typed papers.

"Katsuragi Keima. Age, Height, Weight, Eye Color, Hair Color, Handedness... " Keima murmured, reading the first page. He flips to the second. Merui seemed to be increasingly pleased with herself as he read on.

"Likes: games (anything EXCEPT galgames)?" Keima blinks. "Baseball, little sister... Type of Girl: someone like Youko... Traumatic Experiences, Most Embarrassing Experience, Most Mermorable Exper..." Keima viciously flips to the next page. "First Love?! Best Friend?! How I Began My Baseball Career?!" Keima throws the papers to the ground. "What's with this elaborately designed character?! Is this supposed to be me?!"

Merui nods affirmatively. "That's right! This will be your new identity for the operation, Fanboy-kun!" She points at him. "Use this profile as reference when interacting with Youko-san!"

Keima gives her a disbelieving stare. Then, pinching the bridge of his nose, he explains tiredly, "Listen, Merui. I've never had to lie about myself to any of my capture targets. This entire character set up is unnecessary."

Merui looks significantly less pleased. She had even forgotten to shout, "Don't call me by my first name!" There is a pause. "You've... you've never lied about yourself?"

"_No!_ " Keima shouts, then adds, "Well, once I had to pretend I was good at swimming, but the whole point of that capture was to take advantage of my distant senpai status!"

Merui gives him a disbelieving stare, then, "Wait wait wait wait! How can you _possibly_ make _anyone_ fall for _you_?"

Keima snaps, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"_Look at you!_ You play galgames all the time, you don't dress up or fix your hair! Sure you're smart and relatively good-looking, but you have this creepy, melancholy, repellent vibe that clearly screams to the rest of the living world that they're all idiots and that they should just leave you the hell alone!" She finishes everything in one breath, so now she's breathing hard. "I don't see how _that, _in any angle, can _possibly_ be attractive!"

For a few seconds, Keima opens and closes his mouth wordlessly. Then, "Wh-what do you know about attraction?! It's all about the choices! The routes you take for the capture! Like I've been saying, the players parameters don't matter! As long as you make the right choices, the capture is inevitable!" Keima points at her. It has such theatric force that Merui steps back. "Listen up, you manga fangirl! DON'T EVER UNDERESTIMATE _LOVE_!"

For a few seconds, Merui opens and closes _her_ mouth wordlessly. Then, "Love?! LOVE?!" She shrieks incredulously; she grabs his shirt front and pulls him close, her voice low and vehement, "What choices? What routes? You're saying the player's parameters don't matter, and though I've been assuming that's just your galgame talk, you really WERE just playing with their hearts, weren't you? Like a 'player' indeed!" She was angry. She shouts, her face still close to his, "Your choices were lies! The routes you took were all lies! So don't tell me you've NEVER pretended to be something you're not while driving the spirits out!"

He grabs the wrist that held his shirt and abruptly backs her up to the wall. Merui is momentarily startled. He slams his free hand against the wall near her ear.

God's voice is close and serious. "I have NEVER pretended to be something I'm not while driving the spirits out. For that matter, I have NEVER pretended to be anything but myself." His eyes seemed clearer than Merui had ever seen them. "_I_ made them fall for _me_. Get that straight. This kind of misunderstanding-"

A second passes. The classroom is dark and still.

"-this kind of misunderstanding," he tries again, with more difficulty.

He releases her wrist.

God steps back, and turns away. "It's pissing me off."

Still watching him, Merui finally exhales, surprised that she had been holding her breath for that long.

"...Sorry," she finally says, absently rubbing her wrist. "It seems... I've misunderstood something really fundamental here." Which was a shock because she was usually very good at reading people. At least now she understood why he had held his tongue when she slapped him the first time they met. "But... Fanboy-kun-"

"I know."

She stops, surprised again. He knew what she was going to say?

"I'll do it. You already planned it out, and even went so far as to make all this." He picks up the Katsuragi Keima profile on the floor. "I will capture Yukinoshita Youko using this identity."

He _did_ know what she was going to say. She was impressed... but... she was worried as well. "Can you do it?"

"Of course."

"I mean-"

"It's okay." Keima looks at her. Then he says something that strips Merui down to her core.

"It's _you_ who should stop feeling so guilty about your methods of capturing."

Merui is still.

Many seconds pass.

When she finally looks away, she has a slightly sad smile. "I know... I don't anymore." Then she says something that even God did not anticipate. "I just get scared, sometimes."

It is at this precise moment that the classroom door slides open.

"Shopping compleeete!" Elsie announces as the enters the room, carrying a large paper bag in her arms. Maggie, also holding a large paper bag, follows suit.

"Not everything on the list was available, Merui-chan," Maggie says as she and Elsie dump the contents on a desk. They were DVDs.

Keima picks one up. It was titled _A Wedding for Two_. "You've watched all this?" he asks, looking at each one.

"Not a single one," Merui says cheerfully. "But I've read the manga they're based off. Some of these are classics! Like _My Little Flower Girl_ is about this mom who gives her daughter a locket to remember her by, but the symbolism when she's forced to replace the picture with a pretend lover was amazingly executed! It won the Akio Toyama Award for best josei manga." She made the speech enthusiastically. "Oh and this one is about a girl who gets kicked out of school, but she was able to protect her mom from- oh and this is about a mom who thinks her daughter committed suicide- ohhh these are all good stories!"

Maggie sweatdrops. "Merui-chan, you were the one who chose them."

"But are the movies the same as the manga?" Elsie asks, confused, holding a DVD in each hand.

Merui shrugs. "As long as the script writers don't botch up the story too much, it'll be fine."

"They keep the theme, but not all the elements of the story get shown," says Keima, reading the back of another DVD. "Anime adaptations of games are like that. They're usually a lot more boring too."

"I know, right?" Merui says, picking up another DVD and examining its cover, "The original medium is always better, especially since the story and art is as the author intended it to be."

"Oh, but there are more and more cases of authors losing control," Keima says.

Merui nods. "It's true. The bureaucracy in the industry these days is just annoying!"

"Exactly. Producers put their fingers into everything."

"They change main plot points-"

"-they insert random stock characters-"

"-and NEVER finish the story-"

"-all in a sad attempt to appeal to a wider audience-"

"-and milk the franchise."

The two otakus sigh.

"Well, there's one benefit to becoming mainstream," Merui says, putting the DVDs down.

Keima nods. "More stuff is released. Of course, not everything's _good_ but-"

"-gems do appear here and there," Merui finishes.

"The weather's quite nice today, isn't it, Elsie-san?"

"Yes, it _is_ rather nice, isn't it, Maggie-chan?"


	6. Fading Friendship

**This chapter is more Merui-centric. I hope you don't mind. Keima comes back next chapter though, so please look forward to it!**

* * *

Fujioka Public School. Same day as "The Vandalism of the Gym." Lunch Time.

Rei is standing at the vending machines, awkwardly searching herself. She seems to have lost her wallet.

"Looking for something?" It was a girl's voice. If Rei had been less distracted, and if she had spent more time with the voice in the recent past, she would have immediately recognized it.

"Yeah... I think I lost my-" Rei has looked up and is surprised. "Youko!"

The model student, smiling, is holding a yellow, egg-and-chick designed wallet. "Could never mistake this for anyone else's," she says laughingly, handing it to her childhood friend.

"Thank youuu!" Rei sings, utterly glad to have it back. "Where'd you find it?"

"At the benches. Good thing I usually pass by there." With her hands on her hips, she scolds Rei lightly. "You should really take better care of your stuff! What if I wasn't the one who picked it up?"

Rei glances doubtfully at her wallet. "That's weird though! I don't think I even went to the benches today." She shrugs happily. "Ah well! I have it back now. Want a drink?"

As the sound of the vending machine swallowing coins and dispensing two canned drinks happens several feet away, in the bushes, a boy dryly comments on the scenario. "Lucky for us no one questions these little coincidences, huh?"

A girl dryly replies, "Shut it. It worked, right? We managed to get them together for a Problem Status Update."

X

On one side of a tree, Rei and Youko are sitting together on the grass, enjoying their drinks and sandwiches. On the other side of the tree, four other people are also sitting together on the grass. The only difference these four people have from everybody else is that they are invisible.

Maggie is showing Elsie how the hagoromo, in tablet screen form, can connect to the human world's internet; Elsie, scrolling down the Oogle image results for fire trucks, is quietly trying to contain her excitement; Keima, who is nicely dressed, is playing on his PFP, while Merui, who is still in her semi-goth outfit, is reading from a stack of manga beside her.

On the other side of the tree...

"Did you hear the announcement?" Rei asks. She and Youko have finished their sandwiches. Rei is lying on her back, watching the clouds.

"Everyone in school heard that." Youko, hugging her knees, is running a hand over a clover patch, checking absently for one that may have four leaves.

"Yuigahama Merui is pretty cool..." Rei breathes out admiringly, still staring at the sky. "...I can't believe she was brave enough to do that."

"Brave?" says Youko, amused. "What's so brave about vandalizing the gym? She just caused trouble for everybody."

"Oh please," Rei sits up. "Everyone knows it's true how the school favors the sports department. I'm not saying it's wrong or anything!" she clarifies quickly. "You're part of the soccer team, so I respect your loyalty," she finishes with a grin.

"That's not the point." Youko is matter-of-fact. "If you want changes made, that's not the way to go about it."

Rei stares at her for a second. Then she looks away, scratching her head. She murmurs, "Geez, Youko. You're such a stick-in-the-mud." She spreads her arms. "I thought she was great! She's a good person, even though she probably doesn't get super high grades, or does well in sports." She adds teasingly, "Which is all _you_ ever think about."

"Well, I have to," Youko says primly. "We're high schoolers now. We have to be serious about the future we'd like."

_"I_ think you need to take it easy!" Rei says lightly.

Youko laughs. "I know, right?" She buries her head on her knees as Rei looks up at the sky.

There is a long silence.

"...Ne, Youko. Let's go out this weekend."

"...I can't. Cram school. Practice."

"You can miss a day."

Youko is silent.

"Mou... if you're suffering so much, then don't do it."

"You don't understand."

"...You're right." Rei stands up. "...I don't." Rei gives her a hard stare. "You've changed."

Head still against her knees, Youko speaks quietly. "So have you." Her voice is hoarse. "You think I don't know what you do after school with those new 'friends' of yours?"

"Don't bring them into this!" Rei nearly shrieks. "You always act so high and mighty..." She turns away. "Don't look down on me, just 'cause I'm not like you!"

With that, Rei stalks off, leaving Youko alone on the grass.

On the other side of the tree, Merui has stopped reading her manga. She bites her lip. "Tch. Three spirits at once...what a pain."

Getting the two targets together like this after the First Impression and a big event like The Vandalism of the Gym tested Youko and Rei's friendship by bringing to the fore their different values. Depending on the results, Merui could judge the best course of action. It also let her see the progress of Keima's capture. Youko should have been in a good mood this morning because of him, so the result of Yuigahama Merui's rebellion would either reset that mood by reminding Youko of her previous values, or reinstate that happy mood by reinforcing the newly introduced values represented by her male counterpart, whom Merui designed to be a sort of altered mirror version of Youko.

Youko's mood had indeed been reset, which meant her problems hadn't been resolved, but Merui could easily see what a good job Keima had done with her. That her runaway spirit hadn't evolved showed how Keima's performance was able to temporarily hold its growth back. Since he had caused the negative energy in the first place, with the proper follow-up he was also able to cancel it out. Merui had been worrying about the sudden growth until Keima arrived. She still would have used him, since he had left an impression on Youko and that was a good catalyst for drama, but Merui did not expect Keima to use love. Knowing his methods had made planning so much simpler. Naturally, the plan left a lot of room for error, but it seemed she didn't need to worry about errors with Keima.

Merui was glad that their Current Problem State was within her initial projections.

That means the plan, which she had finally revealed to Maggie and Keima's team in the morning, continues.

She calls to her partner. "Let's go, Maggie, before lunch ends." She turns to Keima. "Fanboy-kun, you know what to do, right?"

"I know, I know." Keima hisses, tucking his PFP away, "And stop calling me that."

Merui nods. "Right." Everyone gathers around Merui. "Now that we've set the stage, the ball starts rolling from here. Team Elsie, we've left you with everything you'll need for the final phases of the operation. If you have last minute questions, please send them through Maggie." Merui takes a breath. "As you know, the final phase requires us to work closely together with perfect timing. You all have your tags?"

Everyone lifts a wrist; three hagaromo bracelets hang on each of them.

"Good." Merui smiles, an expression of readiness on her face. "Then I wish you good luck! We now go our separate ways. Maggie and I will see you at the finish line."

X

Rei had had it! She tried to understand, but Youko kept pushing her away. She wanted to help, but how could she help someone who thought she was better than everyone else? Someone who liked the martyrdom because she can be self-righteous about all the suffering, when no one really expects her to take it up?

Rei grits her teeth, trying to stop the tears. Fists clenched, she whispers fiercely. "Youko no baka!"

A streak of pink catches the corner of Rei's eye, followed immediately by the bang of something large and metal being hit, presumably a garbage bin, and then a hissed swearword.

Rei had been standing near an alleyway made by two school buildings when she heard the sound coming from its dark reaches. Rei wipes her eyes with a sleeve and, curiosity getting the best of her, enters the alleyway.

Upon reaching its end, she turns the corner, skirts the garbage bin, and sees a girl's back as the girl peeks over the other corner of the building. The girl was rubbing her arm, probably, Rei speculated, because she hit the garbage bin when she had crossed the alley, which would explain the bang and the swearword.

Rei clears her throat. "Ano...?"

The girl jumps with a strangled squeal and turns to Rei, clutching her heart in surprise. Then she sighs. "Oh, just a student."

Rei can't control her own surprise. "Y-you're Yuigahama Merui! What are you doing h-"

Merui jumps her.

"Shh!" Merui whispers, carefully releasing Rei's mouth. She smiles in apology. "Sorry. I'm trying to leave the school without getting caught."

Rei blushing, whispers, "S-sorry..." Rei cannot help herself. This girl was one-of-a-kind. She was like Youko except different. Rei begins haltingly, "But... this morning! The announcement! I just want to say," Rei swallows, "I think what you did was really really really cool!"

Merui smiles in amusement. "I appreciate the compliment," she chuckles, "though I'm afraid not everyone seems to think so."

Rei remembers Youko. _If you want changes made, that's not the way to go about it._

"Ah!" Merui says, snapping her fingers. Her eyes are bright with recognition. "You're that girl I bumped into yesterday!"

Rei blushes again. She remembered her! "Y-yeah."

Merui laughs. "Well, it's nice meeting you again...eto..." Merui tilts her head questioningly.

"Ah, it's Sagami. Sagami Rei." Rei inclines her head. "It's nice to meet you again, Yuigahama-san."

"Call me Merui. It's nice seeing you again, Sagami-san." Merui smiles cheerfully. Then she turns serious as she looks over the corner once more. "Geez. I've been waiting for an opportunity to get past the gates since this morning. Thinking they wouldn't go so far as to set security guards on me was an oversight." She hisses, "It was just the gym! It's not like anyone got hurt!"

Rei looks over the corner too. A guard was standing at the closed main gate, checking the IDs of students who were leaving school. Students, visitors and teachers would pass through the smaller gate used for single persons instead of the bigger one used for bikes and vehicles.

This was it! This was Rei's chance to shine! "Yuigahama-san..." she begins, her eyes not leaving the scene, "if you want, I can distract the guards for you."

Merui looks at her in surprise. "...You'd do that? For me?"

Rei nods and grins. "Leave it to me!"

X

Merui considered meeting the hosts as one of the more fascinating aspects of the job. By the third girl whose kaketama she captured, Merui had cemented the realization that although most people were the same on the outside - i.e. they did the same things most people did, they lived with families that were like any other family, they dealt with the same human problems as the rest of the world - every girl and person involved had some kind of subtle trait that was unique from anything Merui had ever read or experienced... and those traits weren't just unique... they were beautiful.

Being a Runaway Spirit Squad member gave her the chance to watch those traits shine the brightest.

In Merui's eyes, Sagami Rei is shining right now. Originally, Merui was going to off-handedly suggest a doable plan to no one in particular ("Oh, if only this and that happened, I'd be able to go through"), then Rei would hear it and volunteer to help. If Rei didn't volunteer at all, Merui would have asked her. And if Rei refused, then a different and longer route would have been the next step.

But Rei went and took on a plan all by herself.

She had created a scene. She had run up to the guard, terror written plainly on her face. "GUARD-SAN! Oh it's terrible! I saw Yuigahama Merui go up to the roof of Building B! She was carrying spray paint with her, so she's probably vandalizing that place too!" Everyone in school knew Yuigahama Merui by now. "I tried to go in, but she's somehow locked the door! I also tried telling the teachers, but I couldn't find anybody! What should I do?"

"They're probably out for lunch," says the guard thoughtfully, "Did you check the faculty room or the canteen?" This was bad. He had no way to communicate with the other guards because all the radios in the school were jammed. How Yuigahama managed to do it, he had no idea. (It was actually Maggie who jammed it).

"Oh!" Rei says surprised. "I didn't think to do that!"

The guard makes a look of distaste at her stupidity. "Well, next time check there. Are you sure it was her?" He is shutting the gate and locking it.

"Yes sir! I'm her classmate!" Then, Rei asks innocently, "Why are you locking the gate, sir? Don't students need to come in?"

The guard is silent for a moment. He says doubtfully, "I'm supposed to keep Yuigahama from leaving the school, but... I guess its okay to leave the gates open if Yuigahama is on the roof." The guard wasn't very bright. His reasoning was, lunch was about to end, so if students came late to class, he might be blamed. "Thanks for the tip, kid." The guard unlocks the gate, stuffs his keys into his pocket, then jogs toward Building B in hopes of catching Yuigahama before anyone else. Since security had been scouring the school since the morning to no avail, he'd probably get a lot of credit for finding her.

When the guard is out of sight, Rei, still standing by the gate, beckons to Merui.

Merui rushes out of the nearby alley and meets up with Rei. Both girls leave the school, laughing in disbelief.

X

When they were a few blocks away from Fujioka Public School, the two girls lean against an alley wall, breathing hard and laughing.

"It worked! I can't believe it worked," Rei gasps, sliding down the wall to sit on the ground.

"I know right?" Merui breathes out laughingly, still standing and leaning on the wall with one hand. "I'm really impressed! Didn't expect you to have it in you, Sagami-san! That was brilliant!"

"Heh heh. Thanks!"

When they had caught their breaths, Merui asks, "But what about school? You're going to miss next class if you don't go back now."

Rei stands and dusts her skirt. "Eh. I don't really wanna go back but... I guess I should..." She pauses. "What about you, Merui-san? How are you going to go back to school after all this?" She fidgets. "They might... you know... expel you."

Merui shrugs, as though it were no concern. "Then the ultimatum I left them is void, and I take all my complaints to the Board itself, which the school won't be happy about since they're really careful about their reputation."

Rei stares at her, wide-eyed. "Merui-san is amazing! You thought it all through!"

Merui smiles at her. "You're pretty amazing yourself, tricking that guard on such short notice."

Rei blushes as she looks away and scratches her head sheepishly. "That wasn't much. I've been having to do a lot of lying to adults recently, so I've been getting practice."

Merui shakes her head. "No, you _were_ amazing! You saved me from having to deal with cleaning the gym and hours of negotiation with old farts." She grins. "I think I owe you."

Rei shakes her hands. "Please don't worry about it! It was nothing, really!"

"Listen, Sagami," Merui says, "I know this really nice ice cream place at the Lotus Bazaar. It's right in front of the plaza, so you can't miss it. I'll treat you to anything you like! Let's meet there after school today, okay?" She has grabbed Rei's hands. "Okay?" she repeats eagerly, with a determination that left no room for refusal.

Which was all as well, since Rei had no intention to refuse in the first place, though Merui's eagerness and the place she had chosen was surprising. "O-okay!"

Merui grins. "Right! I'll see you then!" And with that, Yugahama Merui waved and left.

Rei stands quite still in the alley. The events of that day happened far too quickly to recall clearly.

It all began with the "announcement"; the girl who defied the school had the same name and voice as the cool and pretty girl Rei had bumped into yesterday; it was the same girl who appeared to have a friend whom she was having so much fun with. Rei had found herself a little envious, of the girl or the friendship, she wasn't sure.

Then Rei lost her wallet, which Youko found, and they hung out for the first time in months... but... that had ended in an argument.

Then Yuigahama Merui appeared again. But this time, Rei was able to help her escape school.

_The_ Yuigahama Merui said she was amazing... _the_ Yuigahama Merui invited her to ice cream as a thank you...

Rei begins her dazed walk back to Fujioka High. She is surprised to find herself crying.

"Why?" she asks herself, wiping away the tears. "Just because it's the same one Youko and I used to go to... why should I care?" This was her chance to be part of the flashy crowd. This was her chance to be everything she wanted to be. Yuigahama Merui thought she was amazing. Yuigahama Merui was better than Youko... so why?

Why cry over a fading friendship?


	7. I'm Afraid

Fujioka Public School. Same day as "The Vandalism of the Gym." After school.

With the thought of Rei now completely replaced by a prioritized appointment, Youko rushes home.

She jogs the whole way, bag bouncing at her hip as she checks her watch every two minutes.

School ended at 3:15. Walking home took 15 minutes, so jogging should give her an extra eight minutes to prepare for her four o-clock date.

Youko's face explodes in embarrassment just as she's crossing the street to her block.

A _date_? Why is she calling it a _date_? _Is_ it a date? Katsuragi-kun just wanted a tour guide, didn't he? She just happened to be living in the city he was interested in. He would have asked anyone else.

Telling herself this didn't make the butterflies leave her stomach, or slow the beating of her heart.

She skips up the porch steps to Whiteflower Apartments, jumps into the elevator, fidgets as she waits, jumps _out_ of the elevator, and nearly slams open the door to her apartment.

"Okaerinasai, Youko!" her mom calls from the kitchen as Youko frantically removes her shoes.

"Tadaima!" she announces as she runs to her room, making her mother look back at her from her cooking. "My, what's the rush?" she asks laughingly.

"Hm? Oh, I'm going out!" Youko quickly slides her closet door open and takes out her preplanned outfit.

Yukinoshita Harumi's ears have perked at the phrase "I'm going out." Youko doesn't usually go out. And when she does, she was never this hurried.

Feeling anxious, the mother turns off the stove and goes to Youko's room.

"Going out? Going out where?" she asks at the doorway as her daughter rushes past her to go to the bathroom. "Youko-"

Youko smiles at her. "I'm just going to take a quick shower."

She shuts the bathroom door.

The mother is left waiting stiffly in the living room sofa for Youko to finish. When the shower stops, the blow drier begins. After a total of about twenty minutes, Youko comes out of the bathroom, looking cute in a blue jumper and a frilly-sleeved shirt.

The mother quickly stands up. "Where are you going?"

The question was so seriously pronounced that Youko stops short. She blinks. "I'm going to the Lotus."

"Don't you have homework to do?" the mother asks, following Youko around the apartment as Youko begins packing her bag. "You got an 85% on your last test for chemistry. We've talked about this."

"I know, I know," Youko says laughingly, "It won't happen again. I'll do my homework later. I'm just going out with someone today! I'll probably be back by seven."

"Going out? Why are you going out? Is it for school? It's a weekday!"

"No!"

"No?" the mother is shocked. "You're going out for something unrelated to school?"

"Yes!" Normally Youko would hear her mother's shock and soothe her accordingly, but her mother's river rapids voice seemed to be drowned out by the waterfall thought of seeing Keima again.

"Are you sure you can afford to waste your time like that?" The mother's concern has reached levels of near-hysteria. "What about your cram school homework? Youko, you know... listen to me." She grabs Youko by the shoulders just as Youko is about to pull on her boots at the apartment exit. "It all starts with one thing! Just one!" She abruptly returns to her questioning. "Who are you going out with anyway?" A dirty suspicion surfaces; her voice is cold accusation. "It's that boy isn't it? The one who came by yesterday. Youko, he may be handsome, but you don't even know him!"

"I'm getting to know him," Youko replies, shrugging happily. "He's really nice."

And because of that statement, Yukinoshita Harumi realizes that she had been far too lenient and far too doting on her daughter.

"I forbid it. I forbid you to go see him."

_I'm afraid._

Youko and her mother's eyes are locked.

Still smiling, Youko stammers, "M-mom, what are you say-"

"Boys will only distract you, Youko. And they're only really interested in... in... _that_." Saying the word "sex" out loud was out-of-the-question. "You're pretty! That's why he wants to go out with you! You mustn't entertain him. School is more important right now. You need to get good grades and get into a good college, so you can get a good job and live better than..." she swallows; her next words are said with difficulty, "than _this_..."

She sweeps her hand to indicate the clean but old apartment: the furniture that was never replaced, the floor that always creaked, the sheer smallness of the whole area, which Youko had lived in since she was born.

Youko touches her mother's hands. She seems to be coming to a difficult decision. "I know, Mom." Youko swallows. "I haven't forgotten. I've never forgotten. I'm not going to drop out of school, so don't worry." Her explanation is slow and gentle. "But I'm free today and I want to go out."

_I'm still afraid._ "But Youko-"

"Katsuragi-kun isn't a bad person!" Youko asserts, hands now grasping her mother's. "We have a lot in common! It was the first time I met someone who truly understands me!"

Her expression is so earnest and vulnerable that the mother stops short. "...You like him."

Youko's face visibly reddens, making the mother's intuition ring like fire alarms. "No! Of course not! I'm just showing him around!" Youko fiddles with her shirt collar as she looks away. "I... I mean, I think he's interesting, but I don't _like_ him!" She laughs nervously. "I just met him yesterday! Why would I like him?"

"Cancel your date," the mother says sharply. "Right now."

Youko's face explodes in embarrassment again. "It-it's not a date!"

"I don't care! Whatever it is, you're not going. You are to stay home and study. Is that understood?" Yukinoshita Harumi grabs Youko's wrist and pulls her into the apartment. "Going out on a weekday with a boy you hardly know. He's going to be a bad influence, I can tell. I'm not going to let him see you. Change back into your home clothes. C'mon, I'm making your favorite for dinner."

Youko finally pulls free, making the mother turn in surprise. "Mom, this is crazy!"

_I'm afraid for you. _"YOUKO, DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!" the mother shrieks.

Youko stills. The mother's seriousness finally penetrates the pink haze of youth.

_I'm only doing this for you own good. _"It's a weekday! You've got homework!" the mother says loudly. "You're telling me you'll do it later?"

"Yes!" Youko says loudly. "It's only math! It's easy! I'll finish in two hours, tops!"

_This is the first step to disaster! It only takes one step! Just one!_ "But he's a boy you hardly know!" the mother nearly shrieks.

"You've met him too!" Youko replies earnestly. "Anyway, he's not a bad person. He's just another high schooler." She touches her chest to prove her point. "I've spoken to him."

"You've spoken to him?!" _I'm only watching out for your future._ "What, that small talk in the living room?" _As a parent, this is the correct thing to do. _"Youko, you're not seeing him today, and that's final!"

Youko's eyes are shining with oncoming tears. She takes an unconscious step back. "No..."

The word is like a knife to a mother's heart. But Yukinoshita Harumi cannot stop.

She takes a step towards Youko. "_Pardon_?"

"NO!" Youko dashes out of the apartment.

"YOUKO!"

X

Youko takes the stairs because she knows they are faster. A boot in each hand, Youko runs down.

_This is ridiculous!_

"YOUKO!" Her mother's call echoes down the stairwell like phantoms from an unending nightmare.

_Since when had this been an issue?_

_She had always been supportive. When Youko studied late into the night for a test, her mom would make tea and stay up with her. When she needed a ride anywhere, her mother was always willing to drive her, no matter the time; they even went all the way to Narusawa City just to get Youko last minute poster paper because the committee had overlooked its need for the next day's pep rally. Although everyone thought Youko had saved the rally, it was really Youko's mother who had helped her look for open shops in the dead of night in an unfamiliar town._

Youko skips three steps down, socks nearly making her slip as she turns at the landing.

"YOUKO!"

_She had noticed how her mother always studied cooking recipes, and when Youko asked why, her mother, blinking in surprise, replied as though it were the most obvious answer in the world, "It's so I can cook you something healthy and different every day! You need good meals to grow strong, Youko."_

Youko leaps down another small flight of steps. Her eyes feel wet and hot. Her vision is blurred.

"YOOOUUKOOO!"

_The apartment was regularly cleaned, so it was warmer and more comfortable than any place Youko had ever visited; the shampoo and soap never ran out in the bathroom, the pantry was always full of snacks, and when Youko came home tired from practice, her mom made sure there was always dessert for her after dinner._

"YOUKO! COME BACK!"

_"What's wrong?" she would ask, when Youko was feeling down. She was always sensitive enough to notice._

"YOUKO, PLEASE!"

_It was love... the best kind..._

_And yet... and yet..._

_It was so _heavy_._

"YOUKO..."

_"Remember to get over 90's on your tests okay?" "I'll buy you new soccer shoes so you can run faster than everyone else!" "Youko's such a good girl!" "Keep it up!" "I believe in you." "You can do it, Youko!" "Do your best!"_

_Do your best! _

_Because, after all, your mom is also doing her best!_

_She's doing her best just for you._

_Her best just for you._

_Best just for you._

_For you._

Youko bursts out of the landing's doorway, out the main entrance, and into blessed freedom, when suddenly-

She trips spectacularly into a boy.

"Yukinoshita-" the boy begins in surprise, looking down at her, "What are you-"

"YOUKO!" comes a shriek from inside the building, "COME BACK INSIDE, RIGHT NOW!" Yukinoshita Harumi appears beyond the glass doors at the main entrance hallway; she is frazzled and panting hard.

Looking straight at them, her expression suddenly changes from determination to absolute fury.

Youko realizes she is in Keima's arms.

But Keima has immediately understood the situation. He grabs Youko's hand and pulls her away.

"Let's go..."

As they run together down the street, Yukinoshita Harumi's furious shouts echo behind them.

X

The sky had dimmed to the blue of cool twilight. Neon signs and outdoor lights illuminated the crowded streets in brilliant colors.

As they run, Youko cannot really feel Keima's hand, though there was something vaguely reassuring about the warmth and firm pressure.

Her mind is reeling with too many thoughts, her heart is weighted with too many feelings, and there is so much going on at that moment to know what to inspect first.

They had just run across the street and made cars screech to a halt when Youko sees Keima glance back and, apparently noticing something, suddenly sweeps her off her feet and into his arms.

She has a good view of his jaw and neck as he dives into another crowded place, making pedestrians look. Youko would have been embarrassed, but everything was going too fast. The world was an impressionist's blur, except for Keima's face and the feeling of proximity that they shared.

She is in Katsuragi's arms. He is carrying her away from home...

Youko didn't know when Keima had stopped at a deserted alley. She didn't know when he had gently set her down.

Youko hazily notices the left boot in her left hand and the grimy soles of her knee socks... She realizes that the reason Keima had picked her up was because she hadn't worn her shoes yet.

Keima holds the other boot out to her. He had taken it earlier when he had first grabbed her hand. "Sorry," he says, panting slightly from the previous exertion.

Fingers trembling, she takes it. "Thank you."

In the slanted shadows of the alley, with Keima standing opposite her, Youko puts her boots on in silence.

Keima looks uncomfortable. At length he asks awkwardly, "Are you okay, Yukinoshita-san? I... I wasn't really thinking when I pulled you away..." He avoids looking at her as he absently scratches his head. "...should we go back?"

Youko takes in the meaning of his question. If they went back to see her mom now, how would Youko explain herself?

Although it was the first time Youko had seen her mother act like that, deep down...

...deep down Youko knew she had always been that way.

Youko had let it be. Her mom was sweet. She was only watching out for Youko, so Youko accepted her protection without question. Her mother's happiness was important, and because it was important, Youko strove for it. She was a model student because her mother wanted her to be a model student. She had got on the train that her mother had kindly said she should take, and the train ran and never stopped. It just went on and on in the darkness, with no end in sight; when she had finally gotten weary of travel, she was so far from home that she didn't know where home was anymore, and it had been so long that she couldn't remember why she had got on the train in the first place.

But somehow...

...all that didn't seem to matter so much anymore.

There _was_ a direction. There _was_ an end.

And although she still didn't quite know where that end was...

Her eyes are fixed on her boots as she ties her shoelaces; despite her careful determination not to look up at Keima, she is extremely conscious of his presence. The memory of his holding her hand and carrying her is replaying again and again in her mind.

Youko stands, then speaks with a certainty she hadn't felt since leaving the committee.

"We don't have to go back for now." Her voice is quiet. "But I'll text her so she doesn't worry too much."

And perhaps Keima had heard the certainty as well, because he momentarily looks surprised, then nods. "...Okay."

"Shall we go?" Youko asks, stepping out of the alley. "The game store, right?" She sees him fully for the first time.

"Ah," he says, "That's right... the game store..." he looks sheepish, as if embarrassed that he had nearly forgotten the original purpose of their meeting...

...as if it didn't matter _why_ they had gotten together, as long as they did.

Youko tries to ignore his embarrassment, but ends up blushing again anyway. "I think we're in 7th Street, which means the shopping district iiiis... that way!"

The two high schoolers walk close together through the press of the crowd, under the darkening blue sky, in the cool and brightly lit night of Fujioka City.


	8. My Little Flower Girl

**Hey guys!**

**As our story is nearing its end, I just wanted to let you know that I originally had 3 stories planned for Keima and Merui. The **_**Three-way Capture **_**is the first, and therefore most introductory, of these arcs.**

**I started writing this because it wouldn't let me go until it came to be. But school is starting soon, and I doubt I'll have time to write the other arcs. But, you know, if this fic gets enough enthusiasm, then maybe I can try squeezing it in? What do you guys think? Please give feedback!**

**For those that have reviewed, many, many thanks! It's nice to know that something I've poured a lot of thought and time into is appreciated.**

**To all you lurkers out there, thank you also for sticking around! I hope you'll let me know what you think eventually.**

**I hope you've enjoyed the fic until now! I'm glad that no one's flamed Merui yet because I quite like her myself. She embodies the answers to things that I, as a fan of Keima and his world, want to address in TWGOK. But since the manga itself seems to also be nearing its end, this fic might become rather pointless...**

**Anyway, on with the story! Without further ado, Chapter 8.**

X

X

X

Keima and Elsie came to the Help Club at 8:00 a.m. on the first two days of the operation, as per Merui's instructions. That was how they prepared both Keima and the bugs for his meeting with the absent Youko on Monday, Day 1. That was also why Keima and Elsie were waiting in the clubroom while Merui's Rebellion blared through the school speakers on Tuesday, Day 2.

During the Rebellion, Merui escaped the teachers and, hidden by the hagoromo, she stole back to the clubroom with Maggie to tell her and Keima's team the rest of the Three-way Capture Plan.

Keima was given a prototype Strength Suit (which only covered arms and legs) by Maggie, along with hagoromo clothes, the illusion spell, and 3 hagoromo bracelet tags.

They are in the clubroom, the two teams standing on either side of the teacher's desk, upon which Merui's notebook lay open.

"Use the Strength Suit for your date," Merui instructs. "You're supposed to be an athlete, so that should make up for your physical deficiencies brought on by lack of outdoor sunshine and too much gaming. We'll turn it invisible once you wear it. While we're both on our dates, Maggie will play the DVDs through the bugs and project them onto the Yukinoshita's TV screen."

"That's the bugs' other function," Maggie explains to Elsie and Keima, whose faces wore plain surprise. "I modded them so they can refract light as well as capture it. It's basically hologram communication technology."

"Wait a minute," Keima begins, raising a hand, "it's about time you told us exactly what you do, Maggie. A Strength Suit and modded bugs? Not just that. You hacked into the Maijima site, jammed the security's radio signal, and do a lot with the hagoromo that Elsie can't. Actually, the last part doesn't say much, but everything else does." Keima looks straight at the small devil. "This fangirl even said 'you're quite the expert with the thing.' At first I didn't think much of it, but..." He says suddenly, "Are you some kind of tech otaku? Why are you working with the runaway spirit squad?"

Merui scratches her head in annoyance. "I was wondering when you'd finally ask, but you choose now of all times?"

Maggie looks at Merui. "Should I tell them?"

Merui sighs and nods. "Go ahead."

Maggie answers Keima in her meek voice, "My parents own Holiette Industries, a New Devil's Technology research firm. We helped design the hagoromo for the Runaway Spirit Squad." She cheerfully points at a small mark on her hagoromo. "See? Our emblem is right here."

Elsie peers at the luminous symbol, her mouth parted in awe. "Uuuoooohhh! It's true! That's amazing, Maggie-chan! I didn't know you helped design the hagoromo! So that's why you were so good with it in class!"

"I actually had never touched the hagoromo until Devil's School. That was mostly my parents' work."

"If your parents own such a company, why are you capturing runaway spirits?" Keima asks, a fist on his lips in a thoughtful manner.

"Oh... well..." Maggie looks up, thinking. She answers slowly, as if she had never really thought of the reason before. "I guess... because it's cool."

Merui suddenly extends her arm between the two teams. "Yosh, that's enough info exchange!" she says cheerfully. "Let's continue this very interesting conversation when I'm not being chased by the whole faculty." She stabs her open notebook with the eraser end of a pencil. "Back to the DVDs..."

Keima already knew what the DVDs were for once he'd read a few summaries, even as Merui explained their purpose in context of filling the gap to Maggie and Elsie. Now that the DVDs' function was confirmed, and now that he had seen Merui's methods, Keima comments, "That's a bit risky, don't you think? How do you know she'll react that way? Youko said she thinks TV dramas are trash."

Merui would have pushed up her glasses if she were wearing them. But since she's still in her goth outfit, she crosses her arms instead. "I have faith in Harumi-san. Both her love for her daughter and the power of manga will make it work."

"But we're not using manga."

"We're not because, as much as I hate admitting it, people are more likely to appreciate TV." Merui looks at Keima pointedly. "You should be hoping for its success too, Fanboy-kun. This is all meant to make your job easier."

"Who says I'm not?" Keima replies evenly. "You know the plan hinges on me. Don't make it sound like my job was easy to begin with."

Elsie and Maggie look back and forth at Keima and Merui. Though Merui's DVD explanation sounded reasonable... there seemed to be some friction in the air and neither devil knew why. Was it another one of those things only the two buddies could understand?

"It hinges on you because I was only taking your advice to heart," Merui replies. "What did you call it again? The 'common denominator'? Youko's the central piece of the puzzle here, and _she's_ in your hands."

"Which is why my efforts might go to waste if _this_ is the plan," Keima says, picking up a DVD. "I don't think this route is good enough."

Merui tilts her head. Her tone is as even as Keima's. "What 'route' do you suggest we take, then?"

"A more personal approach. One that doesn't rely on indirect scenarios to change her mind."

"That's the ideal," Merui says, shrugging. "Unfortunately, we have neither the time nor the manpower."

"You believe this will work, then," Keima asks, "that this is the best solution."

"Yes," Merui answers. "I do."

The two devils watch their buddies with bated breath. Elsie and Maggie could almost hear the electricity crackling dangerously between God and Merui. Even though their voices were perfectly modulated, a stark, formidable aura surrounded each human.

"You're the boss," God says. His tone was neither resigned nor provoking. It merely _stated_.

"Thank you for cooperating." Merui gives God a slight bow; the inherent politeness in her words seemed a bit lost, but she sounded sincere.

Elsie and Maggie exhale in relief.

Merui returns to business. "Now, for the tags..."

X

X

X

It is twilight in Fujioka City.

Harumi could not keep up with Youko and the despicable boy. She chased them down the street, but they were both so fast! She should've expected it. Youko was a soccer player, and the boy... didn't he do a sport too? Damn him!

Harumi lost them when they ran past the crosswalk on a green light, and a car stymied her way.

Panting hard and bent double, she considers chasing them to the Lotus.

She leans against the traffic light pole, clutching her chest.

Even the stairwell had been exhausting. Chasing them in the Lotus would be difficult because they could simply run away again. Also, the Lotus was a big place, and she didn't know if they would even really be there. She could call the police, but then Youko's reputation would be compromised.

The truth is, these excuses meant nothing; Harumi would have gone anyway if not for one reason.

_It was the first time I met someone who truly understands me!_

Youko's frightened expression as she stepped back... her defiant "no"... her running down the stairwell... her not stopping the boy as he pulled her away... Harumi remembers these things clearly.

Composing herself, Harumi returns to the apartment.

When she gets inside, her cell phone on the sofa's side table rings.

She tiredly checks the phone. There is a message from Youko.

"Sorry for running. We're going to the Lotus. I'll be back by 7, so please don't worry..."

Harumi scrolls down.

"...I love you, mom."

Harumi stares at the text.

Then, cell phone still in her hand, she dazedly sits on the sofa, making the TV suddenly turn on.

A scene appears on screen. It is an old, Japanese-style town. The camera pans across the crowded streets. In conjunction with swelling music, the title "My Little Flower Girl" appears in elegant text.

Harumi pulls out the TV's remote from beneath her. Strange. She had always made sure it was on the coffee table. Harumi points it at the TV to turn if off when-

"No!" yells a kimono-clad character.

Harumi's hand stops in midair.

She is a young lady, defiantly backing away from an older woman who is holding her wrist. The woman is also wearing a kimono. In the shadows of the expensive Japanese bedroom they stood in, the conversation seemed contrived in secret.

"Pardon?" the woman asks.

"You can't make me go with that man!" the girl sobs. "I want to stay here!"

The woman grabs her by the shoulders. Her voice is hushed, but desperate. "Listen to me, Keiko! There is no choice! I can't let you live here, not in this place!" The room had western furniture. It seemed like it didn't belong _to_ them, but rather, they belonged _with_ it. "There is a chance for a better life for you... a chance that I never had." The woman swallows. "You _must_ go with Emerson-san."

"But..." the girl is crying so much that even the mother is starting to cry too. "...But Okaa-sama..."

Harumi feels her own eyes beginning to swell in sympathy.

"I'm sorry that I cannot come with you." The woman removes something from her neck. "Keiko, I want you to have this. It is a locket..." She clasps it into her daughter's hands. "In this locket are my hopes, dreams and prayers. Know that while you carry it, so too are you carried in my thoughts. Wherever you go, my love will always be with you as long as you have this locket. So please..." she embraces her daughter tightly.

"Please... go live a better life."

Clutching the cell phone and remote to her chest, Harumi sits, trembling and sniffing, as the tears run down her cheeks.

X

In an ice cream parlor called Frozen Stone, two school girls inspect the overhead menu.

"So what do you want?" Merui asks.

"I like mint," Rei says, after some thought.

"Oh that's funny, I do too!"

After making their orders at the counter, they take seats by the window.

"I really like this place," Merui says cheerfully. "It's cheap and the ice cream's good, and if you leave a tip they do a cheer."

"Tip tip hooray! Tip tip hooray! Tip tip, all riiight." Rei laughs at Merui's surprised expression. "I know. I've been here lots of times before."

Merui laughs too. "I just discovered it recently, so I still have to tell my friend about it."

"Mm. Is she the one with the beret?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I remember you saying hi to her the other day. To be honest, I don't remember seeing you around school, Merui-san. I feel like I would have remembered. The only Yuigahama I know is... well, I don't really _know_ her, but I hear she's this strange girl who does nothing but read manga in class."

"Eheh heh. That _is_ strange... What about you, Sagami-san? Do you hang out at school a lot? Oh! You're friends with that famous Yukinoshita girl right? I remember seeing the two of you together all the time."

With the mention of Youko, Rei stiffens. "Umm. Yeah..."

Merui blinks in surprise. She says meekly, "...Sorry. Had a fight?"

"Sort of." Rei laughs. "It's no big deal."

Merui places her chin on her hand and stares out the window. "Well, good riddance. I think it's better that you aren't friends with her."

Rei looks up.

After a moment of finding her voice, Rei manages hoarsely, "What... what makes you say that?"

Merui continues to stare out the window. "How can you stand her? Doesn't she think she's all that? I mean, sure, she's top student and all, but she's the type to think a human's 'worth' is synonymous to 'being good at school.' She'd never associate herself with someone lower than her in that regard." Merui shrugs. "She'd be ashamed of stuff like that."

The words struck Rei deep in her heart. But still...

"That's... that's not true..." Rei says quietly. "You shouldn't bad-mouth Youko. You don't know her."

Merui looks at Rei in surprise. At length, Merui apologizes. "Sorry. You're right. That was a bit much..."

Rei shakes her head. Her hands are flat on her knees. Her voice is shaking. "That's okay... I was actually sort of thinking the same thing..."

_I'm not worthy to be Youko's friend. There's nothing I can give her that she can give me. She's way up there and I'm just... me._

"Ne, Rei-chan."

_She called her by her first name._

Merui is looking away, embarrassed. "I... uh... I see a lot of myself in you, you know."

Rei blinks in surprise.

_Really? The cool Merui-san? But... she isn't lying... she looks so embarrassed!_

"I used to have a friend like Yukinoshita too..." Merui says, leaning back and watching her hands on her knees. "We were best friends since elementary school... then when high school started, we started drifting apart. Before I knew it, she had become a completely different person..."

_Why was she telling her this? _

_But for Merui-san to have had the exact same thing happen to her... is that how she ended up being such a cool person? She became the opposite of someone like Youko?_

"Hey, let's hang out again tomorrow!" Merui suddenly says cheerfully, as if to break the gloomy mood. "If you can, meet me at the Pond! There's something I really wanna show you." She laughs. "After what you've just told me, I know it'll cheer you up!"


	9. Date at the Game Store

**I really wanted to finish this before school started, but that's impossible now. **

**Late upload... but I DO have a surprise for you at the end! :)**

* * *

The Lotus Bazaar was thus called because of its shape. Curving streets, lined with numerous shops and stalls on either side, radiated from the large Central Plaza. The spot was popular for the cheap and varied wares sold, from cute trinkets you hung on your cell phones to creatively cooked delicacies. If viewed from above, the shopping district resembled a blooming, kaleidoscopic lotus flower.

But the two high schoolers are not in any of the "petals" because that was where Merui and Rei were. Though it was unlikely that the two groups would meet due to the largeness of the area and its crowd-congested streets, it was still better to be safe.

Besides, the plan was for Youko to take Keima to the "real" game stores in the electronics district. Those were in the Lotus' air-conditioned malls, which were outside the central blossom, ringing it like leaves.

"Woooaaah!" Keima's eyes are wide with genuine excitement; he is almost drooling.

He and Youko stand at a balcony on the third floor. The mall's expanse stretches beneath them. Across from the couple, seeming to unfold in warm, enticing welcome, are several floors of open game shops. "This place is huuuge!" Keima comments in awe, as Youko watches him in fond amusement.

_Katsuragi-kun is so cute_, Youko thinks, giggling. _He's like a kid in a toy store now, even though he acted so manly earlier_. Then, realizing what she's thinking, she shakes her head furiously.

Keima is leaning dangerously over the railing. "Why have I never come here before? This... this must be..." The shops glow with beautiful, multicolored signs and the promise of everlasting joy. "Heaven!" Keima squeals, then dashes towards the nearest-

He stops mid-dash. An annoyed expression crosses his face.

Damn. That's right. He was in the middle of a capture. He and Youko were supposed to be on a date.

Well, whatever! He'll increase the love points AND check out the shops. To hell with the fangirl. There was no way God would miss out on new galgames just because his character wasn't supposed to like them.

"C'mon Yukinoshita-san," Keima says cheerfully, grabbing her hand and making her heart pound, "Let's go! That store looks interesting!"

X

Posters hung on the walls. Life-sized anime cutouts stood in bright welcome at the entrance of every isle.

Some of the male customers sneak wistful glances at the pretty Youko, then sneak suspicious ones at her handsome companion, who is hungrily taking down five games at a time for inspection.

"I didn't know you liked games this much, Katsuragi-kun," Youko comments, looking around the game-packed shop.

"Mmm..." Keima reads the back cover of a galgame. Fully conscious of his role as Katsuragi the Baseball Player, he answers distractedly, "It's my only source of freedom, after all." He sheepishly looks up at her. "Is that weird? People get surprised when they find out I like games."

Youko shakes her head, then speaks kindly. "No, I think we all need a distraction from work occasionally." She laughs, making some of the male customers who had been discreetly watching her melt inside. "But this does explain a lot. To tell you the truth, when you came to our apartment, I was surprised you were the same Katsuragi from the stadium." She smiles warmly. "Now I see that you really are passionate about your games."

Keima returns the cover onto the shelf, looking embarrassed. "Ahh, I was hoping you'd forget that..." That's right, Katsuragi the Baseball Player _would_ be ashamed of his behavior at the stadium.

Youko shakes her head again. "I won't forget it..." She turns away, as though embarrassed as well.

God blinks. This was an unexpected reaction. She should've been merely kind, not embarrassed.

She fiddles with a game cover by tipping it on the shelf. Her head is bowed. "I won't forget it because... I got to see a side of Katsuragi-kun that he doesn't show anyone else..." Shutting her eyes, Youko mentally beats herself. _Ahhh, that was too bold! Why would I say that?! It's true, but it's too bold!_

There is an awkward silence, during which some male customers leave the store with broken hearts, and Youko wishes she could crawl into a hole and die.

Then, she feels Keima briefly tap her shoulder. She catches a glimpse of his blushing face as he walks ahead. "Let's go check out the next store, Yukinoshita-san," he says hoarsely.

X

A sick feeling is uncurling in Keima's stomach, and he knows it was prompted by Youko's honest proclamation. His blushing and embarrassment is real.

"Why?" God demands of himself. His cold, steel logic pierces the flustered haze and finds the answer.

It's because he was pretending! It's the target's honesty in a contrived scenario!

No... it wasn't just that. He was used to targets being honest in contrived scenarios... what was so different about this one?

Youko was falling for _him_. Of course she would, he was _capturing_ her... he had been through this many, many times before, both in games and in real life. So why feel... _ashamed_ now?

While Keima felt positive that he must do this to help the girls and to save himself...

He touches the Devil's Choker at his neck, then shakes his head furiously.

"What the hell am I thinking?" he hisses quietly. Youko's shy statement kept replaying in his mind. "How idiotic. I'm starting to think like that fangirl."

_Think of the capture! Think _only_ of the capture!"_

"I haven't come here in a while," Youko says suddenly, making Keima stop. They were outside the shop, on their way to the next one. Youko is staring at the mall's expanse, a glazed expression on her face.

Keima thinks in annoyance, "What's with the sudden change? You were embarrassed two seconds ago. You even gave me a stomach ache. Put more weight into your feelings, why don't you? If not for your sake then for mine!"

Youko stares at the crowds below. "It's changed a lot... I used to come here all the time with Rei when we were in middle school."

...Real girls really are too unpredictable. Her pace wasn't matching his. Merui was with Rei at the ice cream parlor for exactly the same reason Keima was with Youko at the mall right now - the power of Setting on a character's thoughts and feelings. In this case, the Lotus was an old haunt for both girls.

This conversation was an important part of the Three-way Capture. Keima had planned to start it with the question, "Do you come here often, Yukinoshita-san?" and steer it to a talk about Rei, but it seemed Youko was already thinking about it.

Oh well. He had wanted this to happen.

"Rei?" Keima asks innocently.

"Sagami Rei." Youko distractedly leans her elbows on the railing. "My best friend."

X

Everything that was happening in the past few days is settling in Youko's mind. The fight with Rei, the fight with her mom, and her questioning her goal to become "the best," had exploded into confusing bits and pieces by the earth-shattering arrival of Keima...

Rei was an important part of her life... but somehow, Youko had gotten so steeped in her own selfish problems that she had pushed Rei away and buried her from memory...

Until they hung out earlier that day at lunch, for the first time in months.

"Rei's so easygoing about everything," Youko says, still distracted. "But she's been changing, recently..."

Youko feels Katsuragi take the spot at the railings beside her.

"...She was never jealous of anybody," Youko continues. "She was always just herself. She was happy with the way she was." Youko swallows. "It was something I could never do. But now, she's gone off doing things I don't get."

Youko remembers when one of her classmates had told her about Rei trying different clubs and hanging out with different people. Youko had meant to see Rei and ask her about it, but she never got the chance. It had been sports festival week, and Youko was busy planning and practicing for the events. When it was over, she had then focused on finals, and Rei slipped her mind completely. By the time Youko had remembered to see Rei again, Rei had become friends with a new group of girls. Youko had finally approached her, but felt whatever argument she had die in her throat when she saw Rei in high spirits.

After that, Youko felt she needn't interfere with Rei. Besides, there were other, more important things to take care of. She had no time for friends. Rei could handle herself.

It wasn't unusual for people to drift apart in high school. It's when you found you niche, after all. Maybe, she had reasoned, she and Rei didn't share the same one.

But... Rei was Rei! Same niche or not, the girl was still acting strange. Why hadn't Youko bothered to find out more?

Youko continues to stare at the crowds below. Her eye is caught by two young girls in their school uniforms, chatting vibrantly.

"It's like she was suddenly determined to try different things and become something she's not."

"How do you know she's not just being herself, trying out different things?"

The statement makes Youko abruptly look at Katsuragi. He too is staring at the crowds below.

Doubt casts its shadow over Youko features. She leans back, arms extended, hands gripping the railings tightly. She speaks with difficulty. "Rei... _is_ the type to try different things. She's not afraid of change. But it's different now, somehow. While she would try different things, she was still happy with _herself_, you know? But this time..." Youko shakes her head furiously. "I don't know! It's like she's seriously trying to be a different person. I don't get it!"

"Maybe..." Katsuragi begins vaguely, "...we're all trying to be different persons because we think it'll make us happier...?"

The statement makes Youko look again.

Keima uncomfortably clears his throat. "For example!" he says cheerfully, still avoiding her gaze, "baseball... isn't for me. I've never really enjoyed it, but it makes my parents happy. Everyone seems to be pushing me to do it because they think I've got talent, or something." It seemed Katsuragi was having a very uncomfortable time saying this, as if it were something that had been bothering him.

(Little does Youko know, Keima is thrashing about in anger inside, yelling, "I hate this! I hate this dishonesty!")

Youko remembers searching his name online, a fact she will not reveal to Keima because that would only add to the list of embarrassing things she had already done around him.

She knows he is the baseball team's ace. She knows he had won important tournaments that made Maijima's name known. And yet, the truth is, he doesn't like any of it...

"What's weird is how people can be good at things they don't enjoy," he continues, leaning on the railings. "We're told to nurture the talents we were born with since apparently the gods gave them to us... the way I see it, the gods messed up divvying talent points on people who don't want them. Then you get accused of being ungrateful or selfish 'cause you're not using the skills other people wish they had. You take a path... not because you choose it, but because you could walk it better than anyone else...

...Maybe Sagami-san is going against the path she's 'meant' to take because she thinks it'll give her happiness. And maybe Yukinoshita-san takes the path she's 'meant' to take because she thinks it'll give her happiness as well. The question is..." Katsuragi meets her gaze, "...will it, really?"

There was something about those light brown eyes that made you freeze.

They seemed to know everything. They demanded, and accused, but they expected something of you at the same time, and because they expected something of you, they believed in you more than rest of the world did.

They were eyes that had already found what they wanted, and they believed you could do the same.

But Youko can't. She breaks her gaze away from his.

"It... it's impossible to know that," she answers quietly. "You're saying we should take the path that makes us happy, whether we're 'meant' to or not... but we can't see the future. 'Happiness' isn't always the same as 'good,' and even if it were, hurting now can mean happiness later."

Katsuragi seems to consider this for a moment.

After a while, he concedes, "Mm... that's true..." Then he pushes off the railing. "But I still think what I consider to be 'happiness' is good!" he announces decidedly. "And even if you're hurting now, it's still good to pick up happiness where you can find them."

Then he says something that strikes Youko.

"I'm lucky I already found mine. It was worth the broken PFP."

Youko suddenly looks up. "Your happiness? What do you mean it was worth the broken PFP?"

Katsuragi seemed to freeze at the question. He turns away abruptly, covering his mouth with one hand and waving away with the other. He is blushing. "Forget it! Forget I said that!"

Youko has a warm suspicion that somehow makes her feel fuzzy inside. "Why?"

"Hey, is there a good place to eat out here?"

"Don't change the subject!" Youko laughs, pulling his sleeve as he starts walking ahead. "What is it? What is this 'happiness'?"

"I'm- I'm not going to tell you!"

"Why? Is it embarrassing? I won't tell anyone, I promise!"

He gulps as she hangs onto to his arm.

"I'll tell you when the time's right! So stop asking!"

Youko stares intently at his face as he intently avoids her gaze.

"A-anyway..." he says, clearing his throat, "...food."

Youko stands back, a faint smile on her face. "There's a really nice place outside. Oh! But don't you want to shop some more here?"

"It doesn't matter," Katsuragi says, shrugging. "I only have you until seven, so I figure I should see all the important parts until then. Besides... Yukinoshita-san must be hungry, right?"

Youko realizes she _is_ a little hungry. She hadn't eaten dinner yet. But she had been having too much fun with Katsuragi to realize. "R-right," she says shyly.

X

She brings him to an area full of outdoor stalls, where the different smells of cooking food wafted like a heavenly cloud.

"The yakisoba there is good." Youko points to a small building.

Keima and Youko push the hanging cloth signs aside, enter the warm, full, and brightly lit space, and are welcomed enthusiastically by the staff.

Service was fast. They didn't need to wait long for their hot dinners to arrive, and as they ate, they started chatting.

Keima was careful navigating the tender subject of Youko's home and friends, though it was important that they discussed it, because helping her acknowledge them were necessary pieces of the Three-way Capture. Youko had to be emotionally prepped for tomorrow.

Because Merui's fake Keima profile was extremely detailed, he was also able to talk about other things besides games, which seemed to be having a positive effect on Youko's love points.

Keima had never changed his own parameters to suit a girl's interests. There was never any need to. But, as reluctant as he was to admit, it certainly made things progress much more quickly. It seemed the fake Keima profile was perfect for capturing Youko. He didn't know how Merui learned to capture girls from reading manga (Keima supposed they were like visual novels, which weren't as fun as dating sims) but somehow the fangirl was able to deduce Youko's "type of guy," and simply adopting that identity made him Youko's perfect man.

It was almost like _arranging_ destiny as opposed to _working_ for it.

Keima's character was essentially the typical young man who happened to have an atypical talent. It was easy to connect with Youko on the usual (or what God derisively called "real") levels. Because of the profile, Keima had funny stories about his "friends," touching stories about his "younger sister," and dramatic stories about his "baseball career."

The profile had even illustrated all innings of several, life-changing games, so he had actually learned enough about baseball to teach Youko how it worked, which he did.

Merui was so detailed about the profile, he even knew how he felt when he won his first game, or when he first pitched at 150 km. He even had a useless love story background involving baseball, himself, his best friend, and his first love, which had no doubt come straight out of some shounen manga. This story was unacceptable, though, because apparently his first love was also his childhood friend, having all the proper parameters, and yet he didn't end up with her and is now pursuing Youko instead. So Keima scrapped the story, which was fine because he wasn't going to talk about "old love interests" with Youko. That was extremely bad form in a capture, despite the fangirl's insistence that revealing one's soul to a target will bring you closer.

He knew the capture was going smoothly because everything he said seemed to make Youko clumsier and clumsier. She spilled miso on his food as she was passing him the bowl, dropped her spoon on her lap twice as she was eating, and accidentally knocked over the sauce bottle after Keima related his most terrible and disappointing game.

When she tried to comfort him, she seemed to garble her words and, unable to convey her meaning, gave up and poked at the garnishes on her empty plate with a chopstick, looking embarrassed.

But Keima was the perfect companion. He never let things get awkward. "Is Yukinoshita-san all right?" he asks, laughing as he helps her wipe the spilled sauce with a napkin. "For a star athlete, you sure have horrible coordination." He grins boyishly. "I guess you're not called the Eastern Gale for nothing."

Youko, though still embarrassed, can't help a smile and a little laugh, "Shut up!"

And so the night went on...

Keima slaps the money down at the cashier's counter before Youko opens her wallet.

"My treat," he says softly.

Youko realizes how close they are standing to each other.

Keima smiles. "Consider it thanks for showing me around."

Youko swallows hard. She stuffs her hands in her pockets to stop them from shaking.

Though her voice is also soft, her next words make Keima blink in surprise. "...Then there's one other place I need to show you, just so we're even."

* * *

**You ready?**

**Surprise fanart by yours truly! These are just MY versions of them, though. However you imagined them is just as correct! I can illustrate any scene from this fic too, so if there's a particular part you like, let me know! I would probably have fun drawing those as well. Oh, obviously these aren't polished, so don't flame me!**

**Since FFN doesn't let us link stuff, type plainred dot deviantart dot com (which is my deviantart account name) onto the address bar and add the rest of the URLs below. There shouldn't be any spaces in between anything.**

**Keima**: /art/Hidden-Flags-Another-God-Katsuragi-Keima-3957 14624

**Merui**: /art/Hidden-Flags-Another-God-Yuigahama-Merui-3957 15751

**Maggie**: /art/Hidden-Flags-Another-God-Maggie-395716077

**Height Comparisons**: /art/Hidden-Flags-Another-God-Height-Comparisons-3 95716356

**OR you can just go to Plainred's deviantart, then gallery, then scraps. It's all in there. Ignore all the Zelda fanart. Those are old. Then leave me a commennnt!**


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